Page 340 - Handbook of Electronic Assistive Technology

Chapter 11 • Robotics 329

Their research hopes to control the stability of the exoskeleton in the real world while
walking with a human operator.

Socially Assistive Robots
Socially assistive robots (SARs), also known as contactless assistive robots, help users
through social interaction rather than physical interaction (Zollo et al., 2013). SARs have
been developed to provide companionship, improve mental health, reduce stress and may
be used to monitor the safety of the vulnerable population (Mordoch et al., 2013). Thus
they establish therapeutic efficacy through physiological, psychological and behavioural
measures of the user (Chang et al., 2014).
There are several categories of SARs, though most technologies overlap between these
(Zollo et al., 2013):
• Companion robots – such as robotic pets, which are used with the intention of
reducing solitude and stress.
• Contactless motivating robotic therapists – robots that encourage and assist the user
through social interaction, but with no physical intervention.
• Assistive robots used for patients with cognitive disabilities – robots that teach the
user social skills and assist to transfer these skills to human interactions.

FIGURE 11-10 HEI (Wang et al�, 2018) exoskeleton motors (left)� Knee movement mechanism (right)�