A New Design Approach and Framework for Elderly Care Robots

A relatively new area within information systems is the design of robotic healthcare. This narrative review considers the question, how does one ethically design an elderly care robot? To answer this question, robot ethicists consider the ethical impact of robots, how designers ought to design robots ethically, and how a robot design ought to be, so its behaviour is ethical. The latter consideration defines another field of study, machine ethics. Machine ethicists ask, how does one design a robot information system to behave ethically? Thus, robot ethics is concerned with the ethics of design practice, whereas machine ethics is concerned with the ethics of the product designed. The findings from this narrative review point the way forward to how one can answer both questions with a new design approach that is grounded in care and professional ethics, value sensitive design, and the integration of two machine ethics schools of thought

高齢者生活支援ロボットの研究現状調査

One out four people are 65 years and over in Japan now. We must support this super-aging society by technology. In Japan, The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare have started a project for the Development and Introduction of Robotic Devices for Nursing Care. The US and Europe also are struggling to find a robotic solution for the aging problem. Considering these movements, Shonan Institute of Technology has organized the SIT Advanced Robot Research Center to Start researching on elderly care robots and has joined the project of the Sagami robot industry special ward. This paper shows the current status of the research for eldery care robots in the world.One out four people are 65 years and over in Japan now. We must support this super-aging society by technology. In Japan, The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare have started a project for the Development and Introduction of Robotic Devices for Nursing Care. The US and Europe also are struggling to find a robotic solution for the aging problem. Considering these movements, Shonan Institute of Technology has organized the SIT Advanced Robot Research Center to Start researching on elderly care robots and has joined the project of the Sagami robot industry special ward. This paper shows the current status of the research for eldery care robots in the world

Scaling robot demand through doing robotics in public

Scalability has been a key driver in research funding initiatives in the field of robotics. A widely spread assumption in this field suggests that for robotics to thrive it must create and keep adapting to an ever growing market. Attempts to create this market can be noted in the diversification of areas of application for complex robot technologies, for example industrial robots, healthcare, home-care and elderly care robots, delivery robots, emergency and rescue robots, inspection and maintenance robots, and so on. The better fit between these robots and grand societal challenges such as aging, food security or sustainability, the better. Yet, in almost no such situation can we see state of the art robots implemented in practice. In this presentation we examine strategies through which different actors in the field of robotics intend to scale-up the research, development and implementation of robots in the areas of infrastructure inspection and maintenance, and healthcare. In this paper we do not start with an assumption of what is or isn’t an effective strategy to scale-up robots’ use, but examine the practices and discursive arrangements through which this scalability is expected to happen. We draw on interviews and on observations of conferences, workshops and final evaluations of European Commission funded projects

Conceptual spatial representations for indoor mobile robots

We present an approach for creating conceptual representations of human-made indoor environments using mobile robots. The concepts refer to spatial and functional properties of typical indoor environments. Following findings in cognitive psychology, our model is composed of layers representing maps at different levels of abstraction. The complete system is integrated in a mobile robot endowed with laser and vision sensors for place and object recognition. The system also incorporates a linguistic framework that actively supports the map acquisition process, and which is used for situated dialogue. Finally, we discuss the capabilities of the integrated system

Value Sensitive Design to Achieve the UN SDGs with AI: A Case of Elderly Care Robots

Healthcare is becoming increasingly automated with the development and deployment of care robots. There are many benefits to care robots but they also pose many challenging ethical issues. This paper takes care robots for the elderly as the subject of analysis, building on previous literature in the domain of the ethics and design of care robots. Using the value sensitive design approach to technology design, this paper extends its application to care robots by integrating the values of care, values that are specific to AI, and higher-scale values such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The ethical issues specific to care robots for the elderly are discussed at length alongside examples of specific design requirements that work to ameliorate these ethical concerns

Personal care robots for older adults: an overview

In recent decades, the usages of robots in variety of industries have been increased. Self-directed robots have appeared in human lives, specifically, in the areas related to the lives of elderly. The population of old people is significantly growing worldwide. Therefore, there the demand for personal care robots is increasing. The aim of this demand is to enhance the opportunity of mobility and promote independence. In the future, robots care will be in very near contact with people lives. But, what caring roles will robots have at home in the future before old persons? It depends not only on the kinds of robots but also those facets of ageing which are discussed in the paper. This article probes the part and function of robots care in the lifecycle of older adults. It contemplates on the advantages and disadvantages of robots application in human life