Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Models for Symmetric Human-Robot Interaction in the field of assistive robotics

COMPANION-CM is a synergistic project funded by “Comunidad de Madrid”, with reference Y2020/NMT-6660, in the framework of the 2020 call for synergistic R&D interdisciplinary projects in new and emerging scientific areas at the frontier of science.

Every day the number of people with reduced mobility, cognitive problems and/or limited language abilities who face a daily routine in solitude, either at home or in hospital settings, grows. Hence, maintaining the necessary contact with them has become a great concern for the health community (a situation that is currently aggravated by covid19). In order to alleviate this need, COMPANION-CM
project aims to develop assistive robots with a more empathic and symmetric interaction capacity, personalizing Human-Robot interaction (HRI) through Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques.

The main goal of the project is to build a training framework integrated over the humanoid robot TEO
(developed at UC3M) so that its AI learns during its interaction with humans and consequently personalizes the HRI to them. Such a learning system will be supported by the development of a series of disruptive enabling technologies in the field of AI. Finally, the framework will be evaluated in three demonstration scenarios: a) assistive robots in a residential setting, b) companion robots for hospitalized patients; and c) rehabilitation robots for patients with cognitive problems.