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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Human-Robot Interaction
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frobt.2024.1455133

What about spiritual needs? Care Robotics and Spiritual Care

Provisionally accepted
Jonas Simmerlein Jonas Simmerlein 1Max Tretter Max Tretter 2*
  • 1 University of Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 2 Philosophische Fakultät und Theologische Fakultät. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Health is a multidimensional phenomenon encompassing physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects. Therefore, it is only logical that good care should be holistic and include all these dimensions. However, when examining the current field of health and care robotics, the spiritual aspect is notably neglected. As a result, current health and care robots cannot provide holistic care. This paper argues that this neglect should be addressed, and, drawing on the emerging field of spiritual robotics, that spiritual aspects should receive greater attention when considering, developing, or deploying health and care robots. We also propose guidelines for equipping health and care robots with the necessary spiritual capabilities.

    Keywords: Social Robots, Total care, Health Care, Well-being, Religion, Theology, Ethics

    Received: 26 Jun 2024; Accepted: 29 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Simmerlein and Tretter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Max Tretter, Philosophische Fakultät und Theologische Fakultät. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 91054 Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.