Webinar 104: Paving the way to Culturally-Competent Robots: the CARESSES project

How can we develop assistive robots able to adapt how they behave and speak to the culture, customs and manners of the person they assist?  

Caresses (Culture-Aware Robots and Environmental Sensor Systems for Elderly Support) is EU-Japan coordinated research project started in January 2017. CARESSES will design culturally aware and culturally competent elder care robots. These robots will be able to adapt how they behave and speak to the culture, customs and manners of the person they assist.

Making robot culturally competent is key to address one of the major problems in robotics: how to increase acceptability by being more sensitive to the user’s needs, customs and lifestyle, thus producing a greater impact on the quality of life of users and improving the system’s efficiency and effectiveness. From the commercial perspective, cultural customization is crucial to overcome the barriers to marketing robots across different countries. Culturally competent robots should be able to adapt to the cultural identity of the user in a range of settings and applications: from care delivery at home or in a care facility, to providing information to customers in a shopping center or assisting workers in a smart factory.

The webinar is targeted to EU and Japanese companies and organisations seeking to improve their knowledge about the interaction capabilities of entertainment and assistive robots, with a particular focus on the Pepper robot developed by SoftBank Robotics.

Registration deadline: 09/10/2017

What you will learn during this webinar:

In 40 minutes from your desk, you will discover:

• How cultural competence can be a key factor to improve their impact in the elderly support
• The key technological issues to be taken into account when developing a culturally competent robot
• The objectives and the methodology of the CARESSES project

Programme:

• Introduction
• Expert’s presentation
• Q&A Session
• Conclusion

Speakers:     
Antonio Sgorbissa  is Associate Professor at the Università degli Studi of Genova and a teacher in EMARO+, the European Master in Advanced Robotics. He is the EU Coordinator of the H2020 project CARESSES, and has been Principal Investigator in National and EU Projects, including DIONISO and WearAmI, a joint effort of the Università degli Studi of Genova and Örebro University focusing on assistive robotics in smart environments.     
Nak Young Chong  is a full Professor of Information Science and Director of the Robotics Laboratory at JAIST. He is the Japan Coordinator of CARESSES. Dr. Chong is a senior member of IEEE and a member of Korea Robotics Society Board of Directors. 
Organiser: EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation - Brussels Office

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