Cognitively Assistive Robot for Motivation and Neurorehabilitation (CARMEN)
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an in-between stage between typical aging and dementia. It affects various areas of cognitive functioning, including memory, attention, and executive functioning. About 20% of individuals over 65 have the condition, with up to 15% transitioning to dementia each year. Existing pharmacological treatments have not been able to slow or prevent this evolution, but behavioral treatments can help.
In order to support a cognitive compensatory cognitive training for people with MCI (PwMCI), the Healthcare Robotics Lab is creating CARMEN, a small, tabletop robot. CARMEN is designed to help PwMCI learn skills to improve memory, attention, and executive functioning at home.
CARMEN is created in collaboration with clinicians, people with MCI, and their care partners.
Publications:
Kubota, A., Cruz-Sandoval, D., Pei, R., Sun, E., Kim, S., and Riek, L.D. (2023). "Get SMART: Collaborative Goal Setting with Cognitively Assistive Robots." In Proceedings of the 18th Annual ACM/IEEE Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI). [Acceptance rate: 25%] [PDF]
Kubota, A., Cruz-Sandoval, D., Kim, S., Twamley, E., and Riek, L.D. (2022). "Cognitively Assistive Robots at Home: HRI Design Patterns for Translational Science." In Proceedings of the 17th Annual ACM/IEEE Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI). [Acceptance rate: 24.8%] [PDF] [Best Design Paper Award Honorable Mention]
My Role in the Project:
1. UI/UX Designer: I helped design the User Interface and User Experience of the iPad app and robot based on the Motivationally Enhanced Compensatory Cognitive Training (ME-CCT) manual, taking into consideration the needs and abilities of end-users (PwMCI and caregivers).
2. I conducted interviews with stakeholders, including clinicians and PwMCI, to evaluate and co-design prototypes and determine how to translate clinician domain knowledge to a robot.
3. I am currently spearheading a personalized gamification of the ME-CCT manual. As a leader of the project, I am experimenting with different paths the project can take, taking inspiration from various literature, such as role-playing games, interactive narratives, and storytelling algorithms.
