The CARESSES project was selected for Horizon 2020 SC1-PM-14-2016 call (EU-Japan cooperation on Novel ICT Robotics based solutions for active and healthy ageing at home or in care facilities) funded by Horizon 2020 and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication (MIC) of Japan. According to the press release of MIC, there were 35 applications which means success rate of this topic was 2.8%.
CARESSES Project
The groundbreaking objective of CARESSES is to build culturally competent care robots, able to autonomously re-configure their way of acting and speaking, when offering a service, to match the culture, customs and etiquette of the person they are assisting. By designing robots that are more sensitive to the user’s needs, CARESSES’ innovative solution will offer elderly clients a safe, reliable and intuitive system to foster their independence and autonomy, with a greater impact on quality of life, a reduced caregiver burden, and an improved efficiency and efficacy. The need for cultural competence has been deeply investigated in the Nursing literature. However, it has been totally neglected in Robotics. CARESSES stems from the consideration that cultural competence is crucial for care robots as it is for human caregivers. From the user’s perspective, a culturally appropriate behavior is key to improve acceptability; from the commercial perspective, it will open new avenues for marketing robots across different countries.
[Participants funded by EU]
- [Coordinator] Università degli studi di Genova(Italy)
- Orebro University(Sweden)
- Middlesex University Higher Education Corporation (United Kingdom)
- University of Bedfordshire (United Kingdom)
- Softbank Robotics Europe (France)
- Advinia Health Care Limited (United Kingdom)
[Japanese participants funded by MIC]
- Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST)
- Chubu University
- Nagoya University
Further information:
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/206852_en.html (English)