Roboethics - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 91

5.8 Socially Assistive Robots for Older People

Socially assistive robots, including animal robots such as the cat NeCoRo (Libin
and Libin 2004 ), baby harp seal Paro (Wada and Shibata 2007 ; Wada et al. 2004 )
and dog AIBO (Fujita 2001 ), provide assistance to people through social interaction
(Scassellati et al. 2012 ). It is possible that the human tendency to attribute human
intentions and goals to even very simple mobile devices may increase the effective-
ness of companion and social robots, compared to, for instance, a program on a
computer or mobile phone (Feil-Seifer and Mataric 2005 ).
A review of the studies of the use of socially assistive robots with people with
dementia (Mordoch et al. 2013 ) found that the animal robots NeCoRo, Paro and
AIBO led to increased social interaction and reduced stress (as measured by physi-
ological symptoms) and reduced staff burnout when used in a day care centre. This
is clearly positive. However, there is the risk that the fact that robots are calming
people by their presence is a case of treating symptoms rather than their causes and
therefore results in the underlying problems which are causing this stress being
ignored. In one study (Marti et al. 2006 ), Paro, which has a ubiquitous tactile sensor
between the hard inner skeleton and the white fur, making it soft and pleasant to
stroke, was found to calm an elderly man with dementia. However, part of the calm-
ing effect seemed to relate to his belief, supported by the therapist, that Paro was
alive and the resulting feelings of responsibility for it. On the one hand, he benefi t-
ted in the short and possibly also the long term from increased feelings of calmness.
On the other, deception was used and may have encouraged or strengthened his
feelings of confusion between real people and objects, such as robots. The use of
deception could also be considered to indicate a lack of respect towards him.
Studies have found that older people in an institutional setting were excited about
the presence of a robot and that it led to increased activity (Pineau et al. 2003 ). On
the one hand this is positive. On the other, it raises the issue of whether this group
of people were frequently bored and felt abandoned. In this case the solution would
be to make available more activities, including activities outside the institution, and
options for contact with other people, as well as with animals. This supposition is
supported by evidence from three focus groups (Wu et al. 2012 ) with older people
(65-89 years old), some with cognitive impairments. While they reacted positively
to several of the robots they were shown, they were concerned and even afraid of
contact with robots being substituted for contact with people and robotic projects
being funded rather than human assistants for older people. Although they consid-
ered the seal robot Paro charming, they considered interaction and communication
with it 'not a genuine interaction' and 'communicat[ion] with nothing'.