AI-enabled Robots Accompany Individuals with Dementia

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – The breakthrough from engineers at the University of Waterloo has paved the way for new methods of programming robots to help people with dementia find items they’ve forgotten to keep, such as medicines, eyeglasses and cell phones.

While the initial focus of this technology is helping individuals with dementia, its potential applications could extend to anyone who has problems finding items they may have lost.

“A user can engage not only with a companion robot but also a personalized companion robot that can help them be more independent,” said Dr. Ali Ayub, a post-doctoral fellow in the field of electrical and computer engineering for this research, quoted in a press release Tekno Liputan6.com.

With an increasing number of people living with dementia, the research team at the University of Waterloo acknowledged the challenges individuals face in dealing with this condition.

Dementia limits brain function, resulting in memory loss, confusion, and disability. One of the significant problems faced by people with dementia is repeatedly forgetting the location of everyday objects, which significantly reduces their quality of life and places an additional burden on caregivers.

Engineers hypothesized that a companion robot equipped with its own episodic memory could be very useful.

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