A Socially Assistive Robot as Orchestrator of an AAL Environment for Seniors

Social robots in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) environments offer a promising alternative for enhancing senior care by providing companionship and functional support. These robots can serve as intuitive interfaces to complex smart home systems, allowing seniors and caregivers to easily control their environment and access various assistance services through natural interactions. By combining the emotional engagement capabilities of social robots with the comprehensive monitoring and support features of AAL, this integrated approach can potentially improve the quality of life and independence of elderly individuals while alleviating the burden on human caregivers. This paper explores the integration of social robotics with ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies to enhance elderly care. We propose a novel framework where a social robot is the central orchestrator of an AAL environment, coordinating various smart devices and systems to provide comprehensive support for seniors. Our approach leverages the social robot’s ability to engage in natural interactions while managing the complex network of environmental and wearable sensors and actuators. In this paper, we focus on the technical aspects of our framework. A computational P2P notebook is used to customize the environment and run reactive services. Machine learning models can be included for real-time recognition of gestures, poses, and moods to support non-verbal communication. We describe scenarios to illustrate the utility and functionality of the framework and how the robot is used to orchestrate the AAL environment to contribute to the well-being and independence of elderly individuals. We also address the technical challenges and future directions for this integrated approach to elderly care.