Conceptual Design of a Portable Robot Inspiring Elderly People to Walk

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a portable robot "Tech Tech" that inspires elderly people to walk. Walk is preferable to maintain their healthy condition both physically and mentally. The human-robot interaction is important for increasing their motivation. Tech Tech talks to elderly people based on the data from various sensors: Tech Tech can judge weather and indoor-outdoor environments. It can also count steps. We took a stochastic approach in order to determine the actions of the robot. The robot could produce preferable impressions such as "interesting," "friendly" and "satisfactory." Experimental results demonstrate that the elderly people prefer long intervals in conversations and affirmative responses.