Myrobot. Human-Robot Interaction with Older Adults Suffering from Dementia: A Methodological Qualitative Approach
摘要
The study of human-robot interactions in older persons with dementia is part of worldwide initiatives to respond to one of the major health challenges of what has been described as a global epidemic. As recently summarized by the WHO (2023), the number of dementia cases (over 60% in low- and middle-income countries) increases by about 10 million each year; dementia is the seventh leading cause of death and a major cause of disability and dependency among the older adults; about 50% of its enormous costs (1.3 trillion USD in 2019) are attributable to care provided by informal carers; and women are both directly and indirectly affected by dementia. The challenge can only be faced by the participation of a variety of disciplines, covering all ground from the most basic to the most applied, from the developmental and physiological mechanisms, to the elaboration of public health policies at the national and global levels. In its questions, the disciplines it brings together, and the combination of anthropological and phenomenological approaches, the methodology of MyRobot innovates in the field of human-robot interactions, which tends to separate theoretical questions (e.g., about the personhood status of robots) and applied problems (e.g., how to make robots more user-centered). MyRobot should thereby contribute in original ways to a better understanding of both the theoretical and practical dimensions of the conditions in which companion robots are used and, therefore, reach a deeper grasp of the factors that determine their integration into formal and informal caregiving dynamics.