What People with Dementia Want: Designing MARIO an Acceptable Robot Companion

Companion robots designed for PWD need to be customised to meet individual needs if they are to be perceived as useful and acceptable. This paper presents a brief review of the literature on the usefulness of robots for people with dementia; it also includes an overview of the ethical considerations that inform robot development and a description of a qualitative study which describes how people with dementia and other key stakeholders helped to design and shape this robot. An overview of the unique aspect of the MARIO robot and the scientific impact of this work is also presented.