Social networks and ict based services in robotic systems (the social robot solution)

1

Social Networks and ICT based Services in Robotic Systems (The SocialRobot Solution)

Dr. Christophoros Christophorou23rd of September 2015

CITARD Services Ltd

2

Robotic systems in Ageing Well are among those initiatives offering functionality related to the:

• Support of independent living, • Monitoring and maintaining safety, and

• Enhancement of health and psychological well-beingof elders

By providing companionship.

Introduction

3

Introduction

SocialRobot Project (Marie Curie):• Funded under the FP7 Industry-Academia Partnerships and

Pathways (IAPP) Marie Curie Programme 2011

• Duration: 1/11/2011 – 31/10/2015 (four years)

• Partners:

– University of Coimbra – Portugal

– University of Cyprus – Cyprus

– IDMind – Portugal

– CITARD Services Ltd – Cyprus

• SocialRobot focused on bringing together the Robotic and Computer Science fields by integrating state of the art Robotic Technologies, ICT-based Care services and virtual Social care Community networks (SoCo-net)

• Developed a Mobile Robot to provide solutions to key issues of relevance for improved independent living and Quality of Life of elderly people and efficiency of care.

The SocialRobot Solution

4

Virtual Social Care Community NetworksICT-Based Services

Robotic Technologies

SocialRobotDatabase

SocialRobot is a mobile robot providing:

• Detection of elderly individual needs and requirements related to ageing (e.g., physical mobility limitations or/and cognitive decline).

• Daily support to the elderly, to remain longer active and independent in their preferred environment, through close virtual social interaction with their human carers.

• Behaviour analysis to adapt social relationships and contexts of the elderly people as they age and provide personalize service support during the ageing process.

• Autonomous Navigation in indoor and unstructured environment

• Affective and empathetic user-robotic interaction.

The SocialRobot Solution

5

Are you ok?

Shall I call your son?

• Elderly Behaviour modelling considering related context of the elderly daily routine occurrences as they age.

• Robot-Human Learning and Understanding.• Affective and Empathetic Human-Robot interaction

including analysis of facial expression and voice emotion recognition, and intelligent dialogue.

SocialRobot Technical Innovations

6

Example: Grace, lives alone at home and at some point

she is sad and nobody is there to support her. The

robot detects this emotional situation and enters in a

dialog situation with her.

• Eye Appealing robot considering the issues of user friendliness (size, shape, colour and acoustic - sound, noise etc.).

• Concentrated on the essentials for providing an affordable solution (14K€) and thus make it economically attractive.

The SocialRobot System

7

• Main integrated sensors: 3D Gyro-Accelerometer, InfraRed ground sensors, sonars, cameras, microphones, kinect sensor, laser scanner, etc.

• The autonomy ranges from 4 to 6 hours, depending on the payload.

• The Robotic Operating System (ROS) is the supporting framework located at the robotic platform


8

• Comprised of three independed Components, each providing its individual functionalities, that cooperate in a decentralized manner to Provide the SocialRobot Services.


9

SoCo-NetICT-Based ServicesRobotic Platform

SocialRobotDatabase

• Create and Maintain unique Personalized Profiles of the elderly ensuring for personalized service care provision.

• Create and Maintain Virtual Care Teams (VCTs) around the elderly, ensuring for continues care provision.

SoCo-net offered functionalities

10

• Perception (Face Recognition, Emotion Recognition, Object Recognition, Sound Source Localization, etc.)

• Navigation (Go to specific location, Person Tracking, Obstacle Avoidance, etc.)

• Interaction (Speech Synthesis, Dialogue Management, etc.)

Robotic Platform offered functionalities

11

• Physical activity program: Correlate/map a challenging and realistic physical activity schedule for the elderly.

• Group leisure activity events: Creates meeting groups to share leisure group activities with the elderly.

• Cognitive failure assistance: Provides memory help reminders to the elderly, about planned activities or appointments, or reminders about medicines that the user must take, etc.

• Daily tasks assistance that provides to the elderly, explanations on how to perform different tasks.

• Daily activity plan: Provides the elderly daily schedule with the various activities

• Etc.

ICT-Base services offered functionalities

12

SoCo-net FunctionalitiesICT-Based Services functionalitiesRobotic Platform Functionalities

To provide a SocialRobot service, the Workflow Engine integrated in the SocialRobot system’s architecture, orchestrates and make use of two or more functionalities provided by the three integrated components.

Services Supported by SocialRobot Solution

13

SoCo-net functionalities• User Profiles/Personal Info• Virtual Care Teams/VCT Members• …

Robotic platform Functionalities• Localization/Navigation/Tracking/Monitoring• Facial recognition/Voice Synthesis • ….

ICT-Services functionalities• Notification/Reminder • Create Social Activities/Invite friends• ……

Main SocialRobot Services supported are:

• Memory Assistance• Recognition of Abnormal Behaviour and Alerting• Face Recognition, Navigation and Tracking.• Suggestions based on Elderly Preferences/Profile• Fall Detection and Alerting • Creating Events and Inviting Friends• Guidance of Daily Activity Tasks• ….


14


15

Example: Suggestions based on Elderly Preferences/Profile

Involved Component

Functionality Requirements

(…) Social Robot, half an hour before lunch, considers the food menu of the care center and the Dietary Profile of each elder and noticed that Robert, who usually eats at the care centre's restaurant, is allergic to fish.

ICT

&

SoCo-net

1. Daily Activity Plan

2. Profile Information (Dietary Requirements

and Food Allergies)

SocialRobot goes to the room of Robert to remind him about this allergy and provide him other suggestions.

SoCo-net

&

Robotic

1. Profile Information (Room of Andreas)

2. Localization

3. Navigation

SocialRobot recognises Andreas and reminds him about his allergy so as not to eat the fish and suggest him however not to skip the dinner as the menu includes meat loaf which is one of his favourite meals or call Maria (his daughter) to bring him something from outside. Robert thanked the Robot for reminding him about his allergy and for the suggestion provided. (….)

Robotic

&

SoCo-Net

1. Face Recognition

2. Speech Synthesis

3. Profile Information (Meal Preferences)

4. VCT Members and Roles

• In collaboration with the Elderly Melathron centre in Cyprus and Zuyderland in Sittard (The Netherlands).

• End-users were involved from the beginning of the project in the collection of user requirements and specification of realistic use case scenarios for the trials evaluation.

• Pilots are scheduled to be carried out on October 2015 at Zuyderland, where up to 50 elderly people and their caregivers will use the SocialRobot system.

• Investigation and assessments up to which point the SocialRobot services improve the self-management of daily routine at home.

• Early results collected have shown positive end user acceptance related to the increase of the elders’ motivation and reduction of hesitations in carrying out their daily routine with the support and company of the SocialRobot.

End User Involvement and Trials

16

• SocialRobot focuses in the growing high potential elderly care market in Europe, and beyond, tackling initially the area of preventive care at an early stage of the ageing process.

• Will be introduced early enough in the life of the elderly when the first signs of physical to cognitive disabilities appear providing thus initially for simple essential personalized functionality covering daily care needs.

• This will ensure that the elderly will be given enough time to become acquainted and increase acceptance of more complex robot care functionality introduced gradually to address further ageing capabilities degradation.

• SocialRobot is expected to launch the final product onto the market two years after the project end; in 2017.

• Zuyderland (NL) that will be hosting the final trials of the project has already demonstrated its interest in the SocialRobot solution.

The Market

.17

• The system is already under exploitation by the GrowMeUp project.• GrowMeUp will be developed having as a base the SocialRobot platform.• Enhancements and adaptations will be made both from the Software and

Hardware point of view. E.g.,:• Cloud Infrastructure for splitting the processing between the Robot and

the Cloud• Cloud Knowledge base for allowing sharing and distribution of

knowledge between the Robots• Knowledge Learning Mechanisms to enhance and dynamically adapt

the services as well as the way the services are provision to cover older person’s needs changes and preferences over the ageing process.

• Intelligent Dialogue Management to achieve human-like behaviour.• All enhancements provided by GrowMeUp will be fully compatible with the

SocialRobot platform!!!

Future of SocialRobot Platform

18

19

http://paloma.isr.uc.pt/projects/socialrobot

Contact us!

20

Prof. Jorge DiasUniversity of CoimbraEmail: [email protected]

Coordinator:

Partners: Prof. George SamarasUniversity of CyprusEmail: [email protected]

Paulo AlvitoIDMindEmail: [email protected]

Eleni ChristodoulouCitard services ltd Email: [email protected]

Contacts:

Healthcare

Social networks and ict based services in robotic systems (the social robot solution)