EBOv2: emotional interaction and personalized cognitive stimulation
EBOv2 has been developed by the RoboLab group (University of Extremadura) to assist in the cognitive and emotional stimulation of older adults through serious games and personalized conversations. Thanks to the CORTEX cognitive architecture and the MAPE-Kmodel, the robot adapts both the content of the games and the conversational style in real time, based on the user's performance, emotions, and preferences. This continuous adaptation allows for dynamic adjustment of the difficulty, pace of play, and feedback, ensuring a stimulating experience tailored to each person's abilities.
Among the available activities are games such as "Simon says"which trains working memory and attention through sequences of lights and sounds, and "Word Pass"a linguistic challenge based on word definitions. It also incorporates a narrative mode where users make decisions in stories related to everyday activities. All of this content can be run in autonomous mode or with supervision via the therapist's control panel.
The system has been evaluated with 32 users in three senior centers in Cáceres. Preliminary results show high levels of satisfaction (4.6/5), ease of conversation (4.5/5), and motivation (4.4/5). Better cognitive performance was observed with emotionally expressive interaction styles, such as those used in mode 1 of the study (positive reinforcement, proximity, and expressiveness), compared to neutral styles. In addition, the adaptation algorithms made it possible to calibrate the optimal difficulty for each cognitive profile, avoiding frustration and improving adherence.
Thanks to its compact, expressive, and adaptable design, EBOv2 is an effective and scalable tool for personalized cognitive stimulation in real-life settings for elderly 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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