Using a Socially Assistive Robot in Gait Recovery and Training for Individuals with Cognitive Impairments

This paper describes a new methodology for gait training and recovery for people in mid- and late-stage dementia. A combination of social and rhythmic auditory cues is used to express the robot’s behavior. Specifically, the described research develops and evaluates a method for on-line adaptation aimed at both personalizing the therapy process and maximizing its health-related outcomes. This novel user activity sensing approach provides the rationale for development of socially assistive robotics therapy for monitoring and coaching users toward customized and optimized recovery and care programs