Therapeutic Applications of Social Robots in Rehabilitation

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution 4.0 has produced a wide range of innovative possibilities for the employment of artificial intelligence and computer-guided devices in rehabilitation. In recent times, medical field has shown a keen interest in Human-Robot Interventions (HRI) due to their application in treatment and rehabilitation of various diseases. Social robots are designed to interact with people in a manner that is consistent with human social psychology because of their capacity to elicit social and emotional responses from users. They work in a human-centric environment by speaking, moving, making gestures, or utilizing facial expressions to communicate with their users while adhering to a set of social norms. We outline some intriguing possibilities for social robots in healthcare-related applications in this chapter. Some of these include treatment of social anxiety, dementia, autism spectrum disorder, depression, alzheimer's disease, anorexia nervosa, neurodevelopmental issues, cancer, diabetes and upper limb rehabilitation after stroke.