Presentation by Dr. Christophoros Christophorou, during the workshop Affective interaction with avatars by Carsten Stocklöw - AAL Forum 2015

1. Social Networks and ICT based
Services in Robotic Systems
(The SocialRobot Solution)
1
Dr. Christophoros Christophorou
23rd 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-being
of elders
By providing companionship.
2
Introduction

3. 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

4. • 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
SocialRobot
Database

5. 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

6. 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
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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.

7. • 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
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8. • 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
The SocialRobot System
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9. • Comprised of three independed Components, each
providing its individual functionalities, that cooperate in
a decentralized manner to Provide the SocialRobot
Services.
The SocialRobot System
9
SocialRobot
Database

10. • 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
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11. • 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
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12. • 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
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13. SoCo-net
Functionalities
ICT-Based Services
functionalities
Robotic
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
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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
• ……

14. 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
• ….
Services Supported by SocialRobot Solution
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15. Services Supported by SocialRobot Solution
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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

16. • 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
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17. • 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

18. • 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
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19. http://paloma.isr.uc.pt/projects/socialrobot
Contact us!
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20. 20
Prof. Jorge Dias
University of Coimbra
Email: jorge@deec.uc.pt
Coordinator:
Partners:
Prof. George Samaras
University of Cyprus
Email: cssamara@cs.ucy.ac.cy
Paulo Alvito
IDMind
Email: palvito@idmind.pt
Eleni Christodoulou
Citard services ltd
Email: cseleni@citard-serv.com
Contacts: