engAGE
Combining Theatre, AI and Social Robots to Support Cognitive Health
engAGE created a digital ecosystem that blends theatre-based therapy, remote monitoring, social robots and AI-driven assessment to support older adults with cognitive decline. Through multi-country trials, the project demonstrated how creative, digital and clinical approaches can work together in care settings.
A Multimodal Approach to Cognitive Decline
engAGE set out to support older adults living with mild cognitive impairment by combining creative activities with advanced digital tools. The consortium built an integrated platform offering remote monitoring, cognitive games, group sessions with a social robot and AI-based evaluation that assists professionals in adjusting care or exercise plans. The project brought together universities, SMEs and clinical partners from Norway, Switzerland, Italy and Romania, allowing each service to be developed and tested in diverse environments.
Meaningful Engagement Through Creative Activities and Robots
Trials conducted in care centres offered a unique combination of social robot sessions and cognitive exercises. Older adults responded positively to theatre-inspired activities facilitated by the robot and enjoyed the social engagement it brought. At home, participants used remote monitoring, cognitive games and exercises, which gave them a sense of security and confidence while allowing for cognitive function stimulation. Clinical partners described the experience as both enjoyable for users and informative for care teams, who gained insight from data streams related to daily routines and cognitive training.
engAGE showed us how creativity, AI and human–robot interaction can work together to support older adults in meaningful ways.”
Prof. Ionut Anghel, project coordinator, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Building on Existing Platforms to Reach Higher Readiness
Two commercial solutions formed the foundation: TelluCare telecare system from Tellu (Norway) and the Memas communication platform from Karde (Norway). Both were adapted, improved and enhanced within engAGE, adding interoperability features and AI functionalities developed by the coordinator. This structure allowed the team to start from higher TRL components and focus their efforts on new services, including machine-learning pipelines capable of analysing and corelating heterogenous information for different clinical contexts. Both TelluCare platform and Memas services have already integrated some components from engAGE into their commercial portfolios, showing tangible impact beyond the project period.
Collaboration, Learning and the Value of AAL
The coordinator, Prof. Ionut Anghel, emphasised that participating in AAL projects expanded international partnerships, created visibility and generated new opportunities – such as the follow-up TransCare project (funded under the Transforming Health and Care Systems (THCS) programme). For research teams, the project provided valuable experience in applying machine learning to real-world clinical data and refining AI models. For SMEs, engAGE offered a testbed to validate features and integrate them into market products. All partners benefitted from the programme’s community dimension and exchange platforms.
Challenges: Digital Literacy, Ethics and Multi-Country Coordination
Working with older adults revealed varying levels of digital literacy, particularly in Romania, requiring careful onboarding and adaptation. Ethical approvals differed strongly across countries and added significant administrative effort. The consortium also faced challenges in aligning cultural and organisational differences across partners. At the same time, these difficulties strengthened collaboration and informed recommendations for future innovation teams: Start with the user, plan for regulatory hurdles early and build f lexible solutions rather than medical devices, which require resources beyond typical project scopes.
Project Info
engAGE was an AAL project combining theatrebased therapy, cognitive games, social robots and AI-supported monitoring for older adults. Partners from Norway, Switzerland, Italy and Romania developed and tested an integrated platform, with several components now continuing in the follow-up TransCare THCS project.
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