Fall 2021 – Storytelling Robots for Older Adults Living with Dementia and Their Caregivers
Project Director Troy McDaniel
Our story-telling robots project originally aimed at assisting caregivers for Alzheimer’s sufferers has broadened to dealing with seniors’ loneliness and isolation in the era of COVID. In this expansion of scope and scale, a new partnership with Mirabella Independent Living has been established. Initial studies with Mirabella residents revealed encouraging results: people open up with the robot and undertake deep levels of conversation; interactions are described as meaningful and fun; some perceive facial expression in the robots; some consider the robot to be a friend.