Music and humanoid robots aid in performing daily living activities in people affected with advance stage dementia

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundAs the disease progresses the ability to perform daily living activities is gradually reduced. As dementia progresses music is one of the last things to go(Foo et al.2017, Beatty et al., 1988). Additionally many studies have shown music to be an effective tool to help people affected with dementia(Baird, & Samson, 2015). In order to help residents in nursing homes to perform their daily living activities we programmed a humanoid robot to sing, perform the daily living activity and instruct the resident to follow them in performing specific daily living activities. The activities that are performed are brushing teeth, washing face, putting on clothes and going from point A to point B.MethodHumanoid robots are programmed to sing the instructions to perform a daily living activity and also act out the activity. The robots are programmed to perform simple activities of daily living that the people affected with dementia are forgetting to perform. The music is composed and lyrics are written by Professors Rudy Perrault and Rachel Inselman.ResultThe robots have been successfully helping people affected with dementia in a short trial. There were three participants chosen for this case study where one person was in the advanced stage of dementia, one person was in the moderate stage of dementia and the third person was in the mild stage of dementia. Each of the participants was able to successfully perform the activities of daily living by mimicking the robots.ConclusionAs soon as the robot started to sing and enact the daily living activity the participants started to move to the music and follow the robot.