EBO: social robot for cognitive therapies
EBO is a social robot developed by the RoboLab group (University of Extremadura) with the aim of supporting cognitive therapies in older people. Its compact, expressive, and accessible design makes it a particularly suitable tool for care environments. Integrated with artificial intelligence technologies and language models such as ChatGPT and Llama, EBO is capable of holding fluid conversations and developing personalized activities based on the user's cognitive profile.
One of its most notable features is the generation of interactive stories in which the user makes decisions and actively participates in small missions related to everyday activities. These stories are dynamically adapted based on the person's emotional state, preferences, and performance. To achieve this, EBO incorporates voice recognition, natural speech synthesis, emotion detection via camera, and computer vision through algorithms such as YOLOv7. The entire system is coordinated through the CORTEXcognitive architecture, which enables autonomous, coherent, and real-time interaction.
EBO's approach is also based on the “therapist in the loop” model, in which professionals easily set up personalized sessions through the EboAITalkinterface. This makes it easy to adapt games, scenarios, and difficulty levels to individual needs, without the need for technical knowledge.
Pilot studies conducted in senior centers have shown very positive results. Users rated the experience with an average satisfaction score of 4.6 out of 5, highlighting the entertaining, understandable, and adapted nature of the activities. For their part, therapists emphasized its usefulness in stimulating cognitive, social, and executive functions, and its potential to promote active aging in institutional settings.
Thanks to its humanoid design, ability to express emotions, and conversational intelligence, EBO has established itself as an innovative tool for promoting active aging and supporting personalized therapies in the field of elder care.
Related publications
2024
- Blanco Castillo, Chong Ojeda, Condón Pérez, Núñez Trujillo | Enhancing Cognitive Therapies for Older Adults with EBO: An Autonomous Social Robot System Integrating LLMs and Therapist-in-the-Loop
- Blanco Castillo, Pérez González, Condón Pérez, Rodríguez Domínguez, Núñez Trujillo | AI-Enhanced Social Robots for Older Adults Care: Evaluating the Efficacy of ChatGPT-Powered Storytelling in the EBO Platform
- Eslava Velasco, Torrejón Harto, Núñez Trujillo | Re-engineering EBO: Advancing Social Robotics for Enhanced Care
2022
- Pérez González, Rodríguez Domínguez, Bachiller Burgos, Bustos García, Núñez Trujillo | Introducing the Social Robot EBO: An Interactive and Socially Aware Storyteller Robot for Therapies with Older Adults
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