Publication: Ayuda a personas mayores con un robot social: estimulación cognitiva
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2019-10
Defense date
2020-01-14
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Abstract
Los países desarrollados se enfrentan a un envejecimiento progresivo de la población, debido
al descenso de la tasa de natalidad y al aumento de la esperanza de vida. En estas sociedades,
asegurar el bienestar de un porcentaje muy elevado de personas mayores plantea grandes problemas
económicos y sociales. Además, gran parte de estos mayores desean alargar en la medida de lo
posible su vida independiente, residiendo en sus propios domicilios. Para hacer frente a este reto,
las ayudas tecnológicas pueden ser de gran ayuda, y entre estas se encuentran los robots sociales.
Teniendo en cuenta esto, los dos objetivos principales de esta tesis fueron: de nir las características
y funcionalidades de un robot social para ayudar a mayores con un deterioro cognitivo leve en sus
propios domicilios, y desarrollar un programa terapéutico de estimulación cognitiva con el robot.
De cara al desarrollo de esta terapia, se hizo necesario un análisis de los principales métodos
ya existentes, y de las ventajas y desventajas que podía suponer el uso de un robot para ese fin.
La estimulación cognitiva con robots es una técnica muy novedosa, que presenta algunas ventajas
importantes respecto a las técnicas empleadas en la actualidad. En particular, destaca el hecho de
poder llevar a cabo la estimulación en el propio domicilio de la persona mayor y poder distribuirse
en el tiempo, intercalándola con otras actividades, como pueden ser actividades de entretenimiento.
Esto contrasta con las técnicas tradicionales, en las que se suele concentrar la estimulación en unos
pocas sesiones cada semana realizadas fuera del domicilio del mayor.
Dado que cada persona mayor tiene gustos y capacidades diferentes, los desarrollos llevados
a cabo en el robot se han hecho de forma que permitan un alto grado de adaptación a las
particularidades de cada usuario. Esta adaptación la realiza de forma remota personal especializado
en asistencia geriátrica. Para facilitar esta labor, el robot almacena información relevante de las
actividades que la persona mayor realiza con él, en particular las relacionadas con la estimulación
cognitiva, a n de que los terapeutas puedan monitorizar la evolución del usuario y ajustar en base a
ellas el comportamiento del robot.
El que la estimulación cognitiva pueda realizarse de forma distribuida, y no concentrada en unas
pocas sesiones como se hace tradicionalmente, ha hecho necesario de nir un método novedoso
para pautar la terapia. Los resultados de esta tesis han sido evaluados por personal especializado
en asistencia a personas mayores, y han sido probados con personas mayores en diversos centros
geriátricos.
Developed countries face to a progressive ageing of their population, due to a decrease of the birth rate and an increase of the life expectancy. In these societies, assuring thewellness of a high percentage of elderly people raises economic and social issues. In addition, most of the elderly people want to extend as much as possible their independent lifestyle, living in their own homes. To deal with this challenge, technological aids, in which social robots are included, can be very helpful. Taking into account this fact, the two main objectives of this doctoral thesis are to de ne the features and functionalities that a social robot has to have to help elderly people with mild cognitive impairment in their homes, and to develop a therapeutic program based on cognitive stimulation with the robot. Regarding the therapy development, it was necessary to analyze the principal existing methods and the advantages and disadvantages of using a robot for that purpose. Cognitive stimulation with robots is a very novel technique, and presents some important advantages with respect to other techniques used nowadays. In particular, a remarkable advantage is the capability of doing the stimulation in-situ at the patient’s home and time-distributed, interspersing the stimulation with other activities (e.g. leisure activities). This fact opposes with the traditional therapies, where the stimulation tends to be concentrated in a few sessions during the week, and out of patient’s home. Taking into account that every person has di erent preferences and capabilities, the robot features developed have been designed so that they allow a high grade of adaptation to the user capabilities. This adaptation is done remotely by personnel specialized in geriatric care. To facilitate this task, the robot collects relevant information about the activities done with the patient, in particular those related with cognitive stimulation, allowing the therapist to track the user’s evolution and to adjust the robot’s behavior based on that evolution. The fact that cognitive stimulation can be done in a distributed way, instead of concentrating it in a few sessions as traditionally, has made necessary to de ne a groundbreaking method to set up the therapy. The results of this thesis have been evaluated by personnel specialized in geriatric care, and have been tested with elderly people in some geriatric centers.
Developed countries face to a progressive ageing of their population, due to a decrease of the birth rate and an increase of the life expectancy. In these societies, assuring thewellness of a high percentage of elderly people raises economic and social issues. In addition, most of the elderly people want to extend as much as possible their independent lifestyle, living in their own homes. To deal with this challenge, technological aids, in which social robots are included, can be very helpful. Taking into account this fact, the two main objectives of this doctoral thesis are to de ne the features and functionalities that a social robot has to have to help elderly people with mild cognitive impairment in their homes, and to develop a therapeutic program based on cognitive stimulation with the robot. Regarding the therapy development, it was necessary to analyze the principal existing methods and the advantages and disadvantages of using a robot for that purpose. Cognitive stimulation with robots is a very novel technique, and presents some important advantages with respect to other techniques used nowadays. In particular, a remarkable advantage is the capability of doing the stimulation in-situ at the patient’s home and time-distributed, interspersing the stimulation with other activities (e.g. leisure activities). This fact opposes with the traditional therapies, where the stimulation tends to be concentrated in a few sessions during the week, and out of patient’s home. Taking into account that every person has di erent preferences and capabilities, the robot features developed have been designed so that they allow a high grade of adaptation to the user capabilities. This adaptation is done remotely by personnel specialized in geriatric care. To facilitate this task, the robot collects relevant information about the activities done with the patient, in particular those related with cognitive stimulation, allowing the therapist to track the user’s evolution and to adjust the robot’s behavior based on that evolution. The fact that cognitive stimulation can be done in a distributed way, instead of concentrating it in a few sessions as traditionally, has made necessary to de ne a groundbreaking method to set up the therapy. The results of this thesis have been evaluated by personnel specialized in geriatric care, and have been tested with elderly people in some geriatric centers.
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Keywords
Elderly people, Cognitive stimulation, Robotics, Human-robot interaction, Social robots, Ancianos, Robots sociales, Estimulación cognitiva, Interacción humano-robot