In today’s society, robots of various designs and applications are utilized in living spaces. In this study, CaTARo (Care Training Assistant Robot) was designed to perform emotional competency training in addition to traditional hard skill assessment purposes. Using a data-centric approach, the training robot simulates a patient continuously responding in real-time to caregiver performance. The design is intended to help healthcare professionals practice interpersonal communication in a variety of scenarios (e.g., patient personality, specific communication situations, etc.). The robot simulating an elderly person helps caregivers develop not only hard skills but also soft skills (e.g., nonverbal communication, empathy) so that they can provide stable, high-quality services.
