Robot companion shows off her potential
Daisy the robot has demonstrated the multilingual and activity-leading skills of robot tech in aged care to an engaged audience while her human supporters on stage reminded delegates that success hinges on co-design.
The Sydney-based Australian Nursing Home Foundation recently welcomed a new interim lifestyle officer – a humanoid robot named Daisy.
Developed by Singaporean social robotics solution provider Dex-Lab, Daisy has already proven to be a popular addition to the team after only four days at the not-for-profit residential and community care provider, Ageing Australia NSW/ACT conference delegates heard during the final session of the three-day event.
ANHF chief executive officer Ada Cheng told delegates the provider was dedicated to ensuring psychosocial wellbeing was considered just as much as clinical care, and that Daisy had already helped several residents feel less isolated.
This includes two residents living with dementia, who Ms Cheng said were previously isolated and not interested in any social activities on offer, but once Daisy arrived they began engaging in the exercise classes and taking photos with her.
Another resident who had just moved in and was struggling to adjust to the residential environment was also soon singing and dancing with Daisy, even asking for staff to send a picture of her with Daisy to her daughter, said Ms Cheng.
ANHF has always actively embraced technology, said Ms Cheng and assuming older people are uninterested in technology is ageist. But she also noted that rather than just about technology, innovation was about making staff more engaged and delivering services that made residents happier.
ANHF is a culturally specific provider specialising in services for older people of Chinese and south-east Asian origin, and so Daisy has been co-designed to speak Mandarin and Cantonese and lead Tai Chi classes and Mahjong and recite poetry.
“In our home, our older people feel respected, they feel engaged, they are very happy, and they always say, ‘what are the new things you want us to try?’” Ms Cheng said.
“And it’s so important that they feel empowered throughout the process. Because they can tell you what they really need and then we try to be creative” she added.
Staff responsiveness
Ms Cheng said at first staff were hesitant about Daisy, raising concerns about workplace health and safety if they would need to move her around. But they continued to customise her and many staff surveyed reported excitement about the prospect of having a robot work alongside them.
She said most of their workers indicated they wanted the robot to do the riskier, repetitive and more unpleasant tasks but a lot of people also wanted the robot to assist in running activities.
Ms Cheng also noted that training for how the robot works would always be available to ensure staff didn’t feel overwhelmed.
“So, when the robot arrived last week, we spent two days [doing] the training for staff, how to use the robot, how to make her effectively run in our homes,” Ms Cheng said.
But robots will never replace the human workers, said Ms Cheng, who emphasised they were there to support human care workers.
Dex-Lab business development manager John Paulo de Jesus – who was part of the Daisy development team – also emphasised this point, telling delegates Daisy was designed to complement human roles.
“It’s kind of a partnership, a tool, rather than a one-on-one replacement,” he explained.
Benefits of humanoid companions
Mr De Jesus acknowledged that Daisy might take a while to get used to, but said Dex-Lab’s studies and consultations with experts in Singapore showed a physical presence was necessary to activate the frontal lobe of the brain.
“And rather than watching a video that could just be a white noise or something that’s just running on in the background, having something physical, a human-like presence, actually does help with mental stimulation,” he explained.
“She’s here to help make aged care, in a sense, a bit more work sustainable,” he added. “She’s not the full replacement or the full solution. She’s the cherry on top to the things that you guys are already doing.”
While in Sydney, Mr De Jesus said Dex-Lab was aiming to check the palatability of robots and technology in an aged care setting and to improve robotic and human interaction, which is why they partnered with ANHF.
So far, Daisy does four main things. She can help lead group exercises, group games and sing-alongs and engage in one-on-one or group conversations.
Mr De Jesus said they wanted to ensure Daisy did simple things well rather than everything simply, and as such she could be put into specific modes. This also means she won’t overhear someone asking for help in the kitchen and automatically leave a group activity she is leading to go and do a different task.
The benefits of a humanoid robot noted so far by Mr De Jesus include:
- helps support reablement through encouraging consistent physical mobility
- consistent cognitive and emotional engagement
- frees up care staff by giving them the opportunity to split the time and care minutes across different areas while Daisy focuses on another part for their workload
- scalability and cross deployment of the robot means there is more flexibility if someone is sick or there is an area in the home short of manpower.
“Daisy is not the main star, Daisy is the co-star,” Mr De Jesus reminded delegates, adding that the success of Daisy at ANHF was dependent on the co-design process.
Ms Cheng and Mr De Jesus both told delegates robot companions were not one-size-fits-all developments, and that it was important to include staff and residents when looking to introduce them.
“It’s not an off-the-shelf product. Innovation cycles should always be in conjunction with the organisation,” said Mr De Jesus. “So languages, routines, activities, and so forth should be something that we closely communicate and work on together.”
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