On the development of a service robot for social interaction with the elderly

In this paper, we address the development of an innovative service mobile robot for social interaction and home care. Specifically, we focus on the integration of a set of intelligent services in the robot towards natural human-robot interaction, and targeting the 65+ age group. We describe the navigation, perception, interaction, data collection and interfacing capabilities developed using the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework to provide personalized care and socialization to the elderly. We discuss the main challenges involved and open optimistic prospects for the final end-users validation of the system.