Development of an android robot for psychological support in medical and welfare fields

In this paper, we report an android robot system to support medical and welfare fields using communication, and a demonstration experiment using this system at a pain clinic. An android which consist of the system is Actroid-F very similar to real female and can exhibit various facial expressions such as smile, anger and surprise. Since the android and an air-servo control system are light, compact and noiseless, it is easy to introduce them into the medical and welfare fields. The android system has various operation methods. For example, the android can be controlled based on target person's head and facial motion captured by a camera. Using this system, we examined patient's impressions for the android which nod and smile at patients in a medical examination room as a bystander at a pain clinic. As a result, it was revealed that about 30% of 70 patients preferred the presence of the android, and about 80% had no aversion. Elderly patients showed to have positive impressions for the android. Female patients tended to have more positive impressions compared to male. These results show the potentiality of the android in a medical examination room.