Attention to age
People's life expectancy has increased and their health status has improved. This is great, but there is also a downside to the coin - the growing number of elderly citizens requires an entire industry with staff to provide costly care for them.
Care robots can take over some of this work. The researchers suggest that robots can help the elderly with everything from staying active to taking medications on time. Now in Europe and Japan, efforts are being made to ensure that robots do not annoy people - their wards, which, according to designers, will lead to the emergence of the world's first robots endowed with the ability to recognize cultural norms.
Robots sophisticated by everyday experience
Cultural robots are the target of CARESSES, a project to build support systems for the elderly, funded by the European Union and the Japanese Ministry of the Interior.
The researchers programmed Pepper's robot from SoftBank Robotics to adapt its behavior to the cultural experiences of the people with whom it interacts. According to the CARESSES project website, such a robot will not offer steak to a Hindu, and will know how an elderly Japanese woman is planning to celebrate the Setsubun spring festival.
So far, the researchers have not specified how the robot will be able to learn about the cultural experience of a person. Presumably, someone will provide him with such information in advance. It is hoped that older people will more easily accept the robot into their lives if it matches their culture and customs.
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Nursing home
The CARESSES team is testing their "cultured" robots in nursing homes in Japan and Britain.
“We will find out if humans feel more comfortable around robots that respect their culture, and if such robots improve the quality of life of the elderly,” researcher Alessandro Saffiotti explained in a press release.
Saffiotti believes that the CARESSES project can help more than just the elderly.
“Robots are entering our lives. They have appeared in schools, hospitals, offices and homes, and we think that cultural competencies will make them more acceptable to the people with whom they need to interact,”he said.
If the CARESSES trials are successful, we can expect cultural robots to appear everywhere, not just in nursing homes.
Vadim Tarabarko