Development of Rehabilitative Multimodal Interactive Pet Robot for Elderly Residents

The ongoing development in robotics has enabled socially interactive robots (SIR) to contribute towards elderly care. Various studies on using therapeutic robots in health care for elderly people conducted for the last decade have indicated the effectiveness of these methods. To capture and retain attention among elderly, there is a need to develop multimodal robots convincingly mimicking customizable social interaction between a human and robot. We developed our own therapeutic robot dog platform, named SNOWY, which provides a customizable level of interaction with patients, advanced motion and the ability to integrate with other interactive devices to provide a complete kit based on individual needs.