Conversational companion robot for loneliness prevention

Loneliness is a common experience which usually increases along with ageing, with approximately 60 percent of population aged 60-96 reporting the experience of loneliness in Sweden. Conversational companion robots are proposed as a solution to mitigate the experience of loneliness due to their ability to have an autonomous speech-based dialogue with the user. This project aims to integrate and investigate Large Language Models in a conversational companion robot to explore older adults expectations, experiences and interaction patterns with a companion robot providing social and emotional support. The project combines both technical develoment through participatory design with older adults and investigation of user experience through social scientific methodologies. The project applies the concept of reciprocity to develop a conceptual framework in exploring user engagement and social impacts of conversational companion robots in loneliness prevention. 

Research team:

Bahar Irfan, Digital Futures Postdoctoral Fellow, KTH
Sanna Kuoppamäki, Assistant Professor, KTH
Aida Hosseini, Research Assistant, KTH
Gabriel Skantze, Professor, KTH

Funding: 

Digital Futures - Personalized Companion Robot for Open-Domain Dialogue in Long-Term Elderly Care

Conference presentations:

• Sanna Kuoppamäki, Lucy McCarren (2024). Reconfiguring Care and Agency in Human-Robot Interaction: Reciprocity in Dialogue with Conversational Companion Robots and Older Adults. Revaluing Expertise - Troubling Automated Practices and Human Competences. University of Helsinki, May 15-16, 2024.
• Sanna Kuoppamäki, Lucy McCarren (2024). Reciprocity in Dialogue with Conversational Companion Robots and Older Adults. Nordic Sociological Conference. University of Linköping, 14-16 August, 2024. 

Publications:

• Bahar Irfan, Sanna Kuoppamäki, Gabriel Skantze (2024). Recommendations for Designing Conversational Companion Robots with Older Adults through Foundation Models. Frontiers in Robotics and AI. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2024.1363713

• Irfan, B., Miniota, J., Thunberg, S., Lagerstedt, E., Kuoppamäki, S., Skantze, G., & Pereira, A. (2024). Human-Robot Interaction Conversational User Enjoyment Scale (HRI CUES) (Preprint). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2405.01354

• Bahar Irfan, Sanna Kuoppamäki, Gabriel Skantze (2023). Between Reality and Delusion: Challenges of Applying Large Language Models to Companion Robots for Open-Domain Dialogues with Older Adults. (Preprint). https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2884789/v1