Engaging Older Adults in Cognitive Activities through Socially Assistive Robots and Sensory Feedback
This PhD project aims to promote long-term engagement with cognitive activities for older adults prior to the onset of age-related cognitive decline.
Engaging older adults in cognitive activities can aid in maintaining cognition and slowing cognitive decline. This doctoral research targets older adults prior to the onset of age-related cognitive conditions (mild cognitive impairment and dementia) to proactively engage them over the long-term through the use of socially assistive robots (SARs) and sensory feedback. SARs have been shown to increase engagement with cogntive training in older adults, and sensory feedback has the potential to incresase engagement whilst decreasing workload.
During the four years of this doctoralresearch, we have assessed different SAR embodiments such as ARI (pictured above), as well as different types of auditory and haptic feedback (such as ultrasonic feedback - pictured above, and force feedback). User studies and Participatory Design methodologies have been employed to keep older adults and health care professionals at the centre of this research (see Emilyann’s Google Scholar page).
People
Funding
Project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Date: September 2019 - November 2023
EPSRC reference: EP/S023208/1
