A Robot to Provide Support in Stigmatizing Patient-Caregiver Relationships

This paper introduces a computational model and actionselection mechanism that allow for a robot to support healthier interactions between Parkinson’s patients and their caregivers. Patients’ caregivers will sometimes stigmatize the patients because of a condition known as an expressive mask. Our computational model identifies problematic states in the patient-caregiver relationship. After the problematic relationship dynamics have been identified, the robot action-selection mechanism chooses an intervention to help to ameliorate the highest-priority relationship issue.