Socially Assistive Robot in Upper-Limb Rehabilitation: Ethical and Philosophical Considerations following a Feasibility Study

Ronit Feingold Polak, Shelly Levy-Tzedek

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Applying robots for rehabilitation raises ethical and philosophical considerations that need to be addressed. We developed a gamified system for stroke rehabilitation. As a first step towards testing it in the clinic, we conducted two feasibility studies with healthy young and older adults, to test their preferences and reactions to the robotic system, and to test whether the physical presence of the robot made a difference in their motivation to continue playing the exercise games. These two experiments raised ethical issues such as safety of autonomous systems and engaging in human-like interaction with an inanimate object. We believe that personalization of the interaction can help achieve a balanced relationships between the human and the robot.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Workshop on Social Robots in Therapy: Focusing on Autonomy and Ethical Challenges
Number of pages2
StatePublished - 2018

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