How to manage the safety of service robots operating in coexistence with demented patients

Abstract: The developing elderly wave is expected to give a considerable demand for robotic solutions in the elderly care, especially in the nursing homes, to compensate for the lack of human resources required to maintain the quality of the elderly care services. Thus, social service robots are expected to fill an important role in the future, by providing services like logistics, remote medical consultations, entertainment, physical training etc. However, new challenges appear when introducing service robots in an environment where residents with impaired cognitive skills, coexist with service robots. This, especially, since the patients cannot take care of themselves, and are formally NOT responsible for any unfortunate safety conflicts. Thus, compared to operating in e.g. a normal restaurant, a service robot in a in a nursing home requires additional attention to the risks mitigation to ensure a safe operation. This includes analysis of both additional physical risks in addition to new, interperceptual risks. This paper addresses the complexity of fulfilling the required safety of service robots operating in nursing homes, and an extended risk mitigation methods is suggested in order to minimize the unavoidable, residual risk.

Keywords: Elderly care, Robotics, Human-robot interaction, Safety

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004706

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