Osaka trial places a social robot with older women with cognitive decline

Osaka University researchers tested a customised Sharp RoBoHoN robot first with an 88-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease and then with five women with mild cognitive decline who lived alone, for roughly seven to twenty weeks. After early technical problems were fixed, the robot ran reliably and participants kept using it, though much of the captured audio turned out to be television sound. Interviews suggested improved mood, less loneliness and more social talk. The authors stress the very small sample and call for larger, controlled trials.

Source: Frontiers in Robotics and AI