Ethical Social Robotics for Dementia Resilience

How can we help aging people with cognitive decline to continue to lead healthy and productive lives? There is increasing interest in the use of personal (or household) robots to help seniors, not only with physical tasks but also through intelligent, emotionally sensitive interaction. However, current approaches, especially with populations with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are limited and fragmented. MCI is a medical condition during which cognitive decline exceeds the normal, expected changes in cognitive performance related to age. In the United States, it affects approximately 22% of individuals aged 65 and older. This presentation will explain a recent project detailing how to build embodied AI agents realized in personal robots that interact effectively and ethically with dementia and MCI patients, and their caregivers. The discussion will offer strategies for effective and ethical interaction and for embedding moral theories (as ethical guidance functions) into the robotic agents.