Meet CARMEN, brief for Cognitively Assistive Robotic for Motivation and Neurorehabilitation—a small, tabletop robotic designed to assist individuals with delicate cognitive impairment (MCI) study abilities to enhance reminiscence, consideration, and govt performing at residence.
Not like different robots on this area, CARMEN was developed by the analysis workforce on the College of California San Diego in collaboration with clinicians, individuals with MCI, and their care companions. To the most effective of the researchers’ information, CARMEN can also be the one robotic that teaches compensatory cognitive methods to assist enhance reminiscence and govt operate.
“We needed to ensure we had been offering significant and sensible innovations,” stated Laurel Riek, a professor of laptop science and emergency drugs at UC San Diego and the work’s senior creator.
MCI is an in-between stage between typical getting old and dementia. It impacts numerous areas of cognitive functioning, together with reminiscence, consideration, and govt functioning. About 20% of people over 65 have the situation, with as much as 15% transitioning to dementia annually. Present pharmacological remedies haven’t been capable of sluggish or forestall this evolution, however behavioral remedies will help.
Researchers programmed CARMEN to ship a collection of straightforward cognitive coaching workouts. For instance, the robotic can train members to create routine locations to go away vital objects, resembling keys; or study word taking methods to recollect vital issues. CARMEN does this by interactive video games and actions.
The analysis workforce designed CARMEN with a transparent set of standards in thoughts. It will be important that folks can use the robotic independently, with out clinician or researcher supervision. Because of this, CARMEN needed to be plug and play, with out many transferring elements that require upkeep. The robotic additionally has to have the ability to operate with restricted entry to the web, as many individuals wouldn’t have entry to dependable connectivity.
CARMEN wants to have the ability to operate over an extended time frame. The robotic additionally has to have the ability to talk clearly with customers; specific compassion and empathy for an individual’s scenario; and supply breaks after difficult duties to assist maintain engagement.
Researchers deployed CARMEN for per week within the houses of a number of individuals with MCI, who then engaged in a number of duties with the robotic, resembling figuring out routine locations to go away home items so they do not get misplaced, and inserting duties on a calendar so they will not be forgotten.
Researchers additionally deployed the robotic within the houses of a number of clinicians with expertise working with individuals with MCI. Each teams of members accomplished questionnaires and interviews earlier than and after the week-long deployments.
After the week with CARMEN, members with MCI reported attempting methods and behaviors that they beforehand had written off as not possible. All members reported that utilizing the robotic was simple. Two out of the three members discovered the actions simple to grasp, however one of many customers struggled. All stated they needed extra interplay with the robotic.
“We discovered that CARMEN gave members confidence to make use of cognitive methods of their on a regular basis life, and members noticed alternatives for CARMEN to exhibit higher ranges of autonomy or be used for different purposes,” the researchers write.
The analysis workforce introduced their findings on the ACM/IEEE Human Robotic Interplay (HRI) convention in March 2024, the place they obtained a greatest paper award nomination.
Subsequent steps embody deploying the robotic in a bigger variety of houses.
Researchers additionally plan to provide CARMEN the power to have conversations with customers, with an emphasis on preserving privateness when these conversations occur. That is each an accessibility challenge (as some customers won’t have the effective motor abilities essential to work together with CARMEN’s contact display), in addition to as a result of most individuals count on to have the ability to have conversations with techniques of their houses.
On the similar time, researchers need to restrict how a lot data CARMEN can provide customers. “We need to be conscious that the person nonetheless must do the majority of the work, so the robotic can solely help and never give too many hints,” Riek stated.
Researchers are additionally exploring how CARMEN may help customers with different circumstances, resembling ADHD.
The UC San Diego workforce constructed CARMEN based mostly on the FLEXI robotic from the College of Washington. However they made substantial modifications to its {hardware}, and wrote all its software program from scratch. Researchers used ROS for the robotic’s working system.
Many components of the venture can be found at GitHub.
Extra data:
Anya Bouzida et al, CARMEN: A Cognitively Assistive Robotic for Personalised Neurorehabilitation at Dwelling, Proceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE Worldwide Convention on Human-Robotic Interplay (2024). DOI: 10.1145/3610977.3634971
College of California – San Diego
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Meet CARMEN, a robotic that helps individuals with delicate cognitive impairment (2024, June 24)
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