Robotic Physical Therapists

Groopman, Jerome. “Robots That Care—Advances in technological therapy.”
The New Yorker. Nov. 2, 2009.

Read this article

Writing in The New Yorker, Jerome Groopman discusses the use of robots in physical therapy. In an article entitled “Robots That Care—Advances in technological therapy,” Groopman tells of a professor of computer science, Maja Mataric’, who is working with Alzheimer’s patients, stroke victims and autistic children using robots. She has set out to build a robot that could assist a stroke victim at home, encouraging her to use a weakened arm or leg. The patients would be instructed by sounds rather than touch. In a pilot trial, they found that the patient is more likely to perform therapy when the robot is there. For patients who are introverted, the robots speak softly, and for those who are extroverted, the robot speaks more forcefully. Mataric’ has been given funding to do a study comparing socially assistive robots with computers in therapy that help learning. Groopman’s point of view is that robots are tools that can help a physical therapist in working with someone who has had a stroke or accident that causes him to lose some motor control. Mataric’ is trying to create robots that can serve as caregivers and can serve as companions to the patients.

However, some believe that using robots as physical therapists can be dangerous. Sherry Turkle, a professor at M.I.T. thinks it is harmful for the children and elderly to become attached to something as inhuman as a robot. She says, “We were wired through evolution to feel that when something looks us in the eye, then someone is at home in it.” Turkle argues that children and the elderly will start to love the robot, and the robot cannot return this emotion. She asks what will happen to the patient when the robot is gone and the patient has gotten emotionally dependent on it. She questions whether robots are even necessary for working with the elderly in nursing homes, and she questions their use with autistic children. She says there is no data on the long-term effects. She believes that the cultural effect of using robots in these instances is a “giant social experiment with real risks.” But like all the new technology, robotic therapists will change the way some segments of the population live.