AMIGO: Towards Social Robot based Motivation for Playful Multimodal Intervention in Dementia

The objective of the project AMIGO is to develop an innovative multisensory robot coach on the basis of the social robot Pepper and the playful training app amicasa for the entertaining motivation of people with dementia. The goal is to empower persons with dementia to perform daily stimulating activities in a concept of integrated multimodal intervention. The robot will additionally be capable to ask about the health status, remind important events or tasks, involve into dialogue, and provide entertainment like reading news from all over the world. A research objective is to adjust Pepper's dialogue and motivation style based on emotional feedback sensed in interaction. The system will motivate to perform personalized exercises, to stimulate cognitive processes and physical activities, and to maintain and extend social bonds. Sensors for eye tracking and motion analysis technologies will offer affordances for entertaining, sensorimotor sequences and for data capture and analysis of cognition and locomotion specific behavioral parameters. Easily usable interfaces enable planning and autonomous daily practice to formal as well as to the informal caregiver in a weekly rhythm so that people with dementia can stay longer at home and the progress of dementia is slowed down.