Project Description

Assistive robotics has emerged as a promising tool across multiple domains, including the care and enrichment of older adults and children with disabilities. In both Spain and South Africa, there is a growing demand for care services alongside a critical shortage of informal caregivers. Assistive robotic systems offer an inclusive and sustainable approach to supporting vulnerable populations without overburdening existing care infrastructures. Existing systems such as the Jibo, ElliQ, and Paro robots demonstrate how robots can assist with medication reminders, social interaction, cognitive stimulation, and emotional support. However, to be truly effective, these systems must be capable of generalising across multiple assistive tasks and adapting to varied user needs and real-world environments. To achieve this, assistive robots must not only learn to perform tasks from data but also interact naturally and meaningfully with users. In particular, to foster trust and understanding, these robots must be able to explain their decisions in an effective way.

The overarching goal of EMBRACE is to foster collaborative research on the development of robotic systems capable of explaining their behaviour and the uncertainty behind their decisions in real-world care scenarios.

Project supported by the call "I-COOP 2025" from CSIC