The Role of Healthcare Robots for Older People at Home: A Review

Attitudes of Arab Family Caregivers in Israel Toward Robot-Delivered Care For ADL-Dependent (Activities of Daily Living-Dependent) Older People: Identifying Ethical and Social Issues

Older people are often cared for by family caregivers who may experience a variety of challenges. Robots may be helpful. Understanding the attitudes of family caregivers in this context is essential as they are a major factor in robot use. To date, most studies on family caregivers ' attitudes toward robot assistance in elder care have been conducted in East Asian or Western societies, but as such perceptions are affected by culture, in the present study, we investigated the attitudes of Arab family caregivers in Israel. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty Arab family caregivers who provide care to ADL (activities of daily living)-dependent older people. All participants were Muslim and adult children of a person requiring care. The majority (75 per cent) were women, and the average age was fifty-one. Analysis of the interviews revealed two main themes: (1) Attitudes: Most participants strongly objected to the assistance of a robot in caring for older people, and perceived it as a violation of family values; and (2) Reasons for attitudes: Participants preferred human care over robot care due to concerns previously documented among other populations regarding system malfunctions, the risk of loneliness, and lack of technological literacy. We also identified a unique factor: the family 's moral obligation to care for older people. The absolute opposition of family members to the use of a robot in the care of older people requires the development of intervention programmes to increase technological literacy among family caregivers and reduce negative attitudes. These programmes need to address the opportunities and risks associated with the use of robots, and how these risks can be avoided.

From robots to chatbots: unveiling the dynamics of human-AI interaction

The rapid integration of artificial agents-robots, avatars, and chatbots-into human social life necessitates a deeper understanding of human-AI interactions and their impact on social interaction. Artificial agents have become integral across various domains, including healthcare, education, and entertainment, offering enhanced efficiency, personalization, and emotional connectivity. However, their effectiveness in providing successful social interaction is influenced by various factors that impact both their reception and human responses during interaction. The present article explores how different forms of these agents influence processes essential for social interaction, such as attributing mental states and intentions and shaping emotions. The goal of this paper is to analyze the roles that artificial agents can and cannot assume in social environments, the stances humans adopt toward them, and the dynamics of human-artificial agent interactions. Key factors associated with the artificial agent's design such as physical appearance, adaptability to human behavior, user beliefs and knowledge, transparency of social cues, and the uncanny valley phenomenon have been selected as factors that significant influence social interaction in AI contexts.

Service robots in caring for older adults: Uncovering the current conceptual and intellectual structures and future research agenda

Service robots have supported human activity, mainly caring for older adults, for many years. However, a new generation of service robots empowered by artificial intelligence and other novel technologies indicates an increasing use of service robots in our society. Thus, this article aims to synthesize and integrate current research on service robots in caring for older adults, identifying its conceptual and intellectual structures and future research opportunities. A total of 390 articles ranging from the year 1997 to 2022 were analyzed with text-mining and visualization methods. We found that this research is composed of six main themes: (i) acceptance and design of robots; (ii) social role and ethical values (iii) obstacles and criticism; (iv) effects, effectiveness, and impact of using robots; (v) therapeutic use of robots and (vi) perceptions of health professionals and services. We also identified future research opportunities which researchers can use to advance the topics of this research. Identifying research clusters and key works in this multidisciplinary research field can assist researchers in understanding the current status of this research and, after that, better positioning their studies and finding avenues to move forward with the use of service robots for caring for older adults.

Key Performance Indicators for Service Robotics in Senior Community-Based Settings

Objectives: This study aims to develop performance indicators for service robotics in senior community-based environments and analyze their impact on independent living and quality of life for older adults. Methods: To achieve this, a sequential exploratory design within the Mixed Methods Research (MMR) framework was employed, integrating qualitative research (Focus Group Interview, FGI) and quantitative research (Analytic Hierarchy Process, AHP). The FGIs were conducted with a panel of six experts over three rounds, leading to the identification of six key performance indicators (KPIs) for service robotics in senior communities: Technical Performance, User-Centered Performance, Social and Psychological Impact, Ethical and Safety Performance, Economic and Operational Performance, and Service Efficiency. Following this, the AHP analysis was conducted with a final sample of 29 participants from an initial 32 respondents. Results: The AHP analysis results revealed that Technical Performance (rank 1, 0.256) was the most critical factor, followed by User-Centered Performance (rank 2, 0.205) and Social and Psychological Impact (rank 3, 0.167). These findings suggest that enhancing a user-friendly, intuitive UI/UX is essential for ensuring ease of use by older adults. Additionally, while Ethical and Safety Performance (rank 3, 0.139), Economic and Operational Performance (rank 4, 0.126), and Service Efficiency (rank 5, 0.105) had relatively lower importance scores, the study highlights the necessity of establishing optimized systems through ethical and safety standards and emphasizes that real-time monitoring systems play a crucial role in enhancing operational efficiency. Conclusions: Enhancing service robotics performance requires prioritizing technical capabilities and user-centered design, along with ethical standards and real-time monitoring. This study proposes a structured evaluation framework to support more effective robotic solutions in senior care environments.

Instruments for Measuring Psychological Dimensions in Human-Robot Interaction: Systematic Review of Psychometric Properties

BACKGROUND

Numerous user-related psychological dimensions can significantly influence the dynamics between humans and robots. For developers and researchers, it is crucial to have a comprehensive understanding of the psychometric properties of the available instruments used to assess these dimensions as they indicate the reliability and validity of the assessment.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to provide a systematic review of the instruments available for assessing the psychological aspects of the relationship between people and social and domestic robots, offering a summary of their psychometric properties and the quality of the evidence.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines across different databases: Scopus, PubMed, and IEEE Xplore. The search strategy encompassed studies meeting the following inclusion criteria: (1) the instrument could assess psychological dimensions related to social and domestic robots, including attitudes, beliefs, opinions, feelings, and perceptions; (2) the study focused on validating the instrument; (3) the study evaluated the psychometric properties of the instrument; (4) the study underwent peer review; and (5) the study was in English. Studies focusing on industrial robots, rescue robots, or robotic arms or those primarily concerned with technology validation or measuring anthropomorphism were excluded. Independent reviewers extracted instrument properties and the methodological quality of their evidence following the Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments guidelines.

RESULTS

From 3828 identified records, the search strategy yielded 34 (0.89%) articles that validated and examined the psychometric properties of 27 instruments designed to assess individuals' psychological dimensions in relation to social and domestic robots. These instruments encompass a broad spectrum of psychological dimensions. While most studies predominantly focused on structural validity (24/27, 89%) and internal consistency (26/27, 96%), consideration of other psychometric properties was frequently inconsistent or absent. No instrument evaluated measurement error and responsiveness despite their significance in the clinical context. Most of the instruments (17/27, 63%) were targeted at both adults and older adults (aged ≥18 years). There was a limited number of instruments specifically designed for children, older adults, and health care contexts.

CONCLUSIONS

Given the strong interest in assessing psychological dimensions in the human-robot relationship, there is a need to develop new instruments using more rigorous methodologies and consider a broader range of psychometric properties. This is essential to ensure the creation of reliable and valid measures for assessing people's psychological dimensions regarding social and domestic robots. Among its limitations, this review included instruments applicable to both social and domestic robots while excluding those for other specific types of robots (eg, industrial robots).

Perception of experience influences altruism and perception of agency influences trust in human-machine interactions

As robots become increasingly integrated into social economic interactions, it becomes crucial to understand how people perceive a robot's mind. It has been argued that minds are perceived along two dimensions: experience, i.e., the ability to feel, and agency, i.e., the ability to act and take responsibility for one's actions. However, the influence of these perceived dimensions on human-machine interactions, particularly those involving altruism and trust, remains unknown. We hypothesize that the perception of experience influences altruism, while the perception of agency influences trust. To test these hypotheses, we pair participants with bot partners in a dictator game (to measure altruism) and a trust game (to measure trust) while varying the bots' perceived experience and agency, either by manipulating the degree to which the bot resembles humans, or by manipulating the description of the bots' ability to feel and exercise self-control. The results demonstrate that the money transferred in the dictator game is influenced by the perceived experience, while the money transferred in the trust game is influenced by the perceived agency, thereby confirming our hypotheses. More broadly, our findings support the specificity of the mind hypothesis: Perceptions of different dimensions of the mind lead to different kinds of social behavior.

Staging the Robot: Performing Techno-Politics of Innovation for Care Robotics in Japan

In response to the challenges posed by a rapidly aging society and its associated socio-economic difficulties, the Japanese government has encouraged the adoption of AI and robotics technologies for care. Conspicuous investments in these technologies in Japan underscore the dominance of techno-politics of innovation and the advocacy for the robotization of care practices. Such narratives - disseminated by the Japanese state, industry, media, and academia - often overlook the perspectives of the expected users of these technologies. This paper, rooted in a 14-month-long ethnographic study conducted at robotics labs in Japan and the UK in 2022-2023, examines the performance and ethical implications of technoscientific imaginaries portraying Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) as already reliable, safe, and efficient. It sheds light on the intricate relationship between science, technology, the state, and society, emphasizing their use as instruments of power for state-led national development objectives. Moreover, it exposes how technology is presented, creating an illusion of efficiency while neglecting the necessity of involving society in co-designing and co-producing these technologies. The paper ultimately advocates for responsible innovation, emphasizing in particular the need for user involvement to ensure these technologies are not only more efficient and reliable, but also more accessible, inclusive, and fairer.

Cardiology professionals' views of social robots in augmenting heart failure patient care

Aims

Social robots are arriving to the modern healthcare system. Whether patients with heart failure, a prevalent chronic disease with high health and human costs would derive benefit from a social robot intervention has not been investigated empirically. Diverse healthcare provider's perspectives are needed to develop an acceptable and feasible social robot intervention to be adopted for the clinical benefit of patients with heart failure. Using a qualitative research design, this study investigated healthcare providers' perspectives of social robot use in heart failure patient care.

Methods and results

Interdisciplinary healthcare providers from a tertiary care cardiac hospital completed a structured individual interview and a supplemental questionnaire. The framework method was used to analyse the qualitative data. Respondents (n = 22; saturation was reached with this sample; 77% female; 52% physicians) were open to using social robots to augment their practice, particularly with collecting pertinent data and providing patient and family education and self-management prompts, but with limited responsibility for direct patient care. Prior to implementation, providers required robust evidence of: value-added beyond current remote patient monitoring devices, patient and healthcare provider partnerships, streamlined integration into existing practice, and capability of supporting precision medicine goals. Respondents were concerned that social robots did not address and masked broader systemic issues of healthcare access and equity.

Conclusion

The adoption of social robots is a viable option to assist in the care of patients with heart failure, albeit in a restricted capacity. The results inform the development of a social robotic intervention for patients with heart failure, including improving social robot efficiencies and increasing their uptake, while protecting patients' and providers' best interest.

Mechanical assessment of novel compliant mechanisms for underactuated prosthetic hands

This paper proposes novel compliant mechanisms for constructing hand prostheses based on soft robotics. Two models of prosthetic hands are developed in this work. Three mechanical evaluations are performed to determine the suitability of the two designs for carrying out activities of daily living (ADLs). The first test measures the grip force that the prosthesis can generate on objects. The second determines the energy required and dissipated from the prosthesis to operate. The third test identifies the maximum traction force that the prosthesis can support. The tests showed that the PrHand1 prosthesis has a maximum grip force of 23.38 ± 1.5 N, the required energy is 0.76 ± 0.13 J, and the dissipated energy is 0.21 ± 0.17 J. It supports a traction force of 173.31 ± 5.7 N. The PrHand2 prosthesis has a maximum grip force of 36.13 ± 2.3 N, the required energy is 1.28 ± 0.13 J, the dissipated energy is 0.96 ± 0.12 J, and it supports a traction force of 78.48 ± 0 N. In conclusion, the PrHand1 prosthesis has a better performance in terms of energy and tensile force supported. The difference between the energy and traction force results is related to two design features of the PrHand2: fully silicone-coated fingers and a unifying mechanism that requires more force on the tendons to close the prosthesis. The grip force of the PrHand2 prosthesis was more robust than the PrHand1 due to its silicone coating, which allowed for an improved grip.

Understanding the Connection Among Ikigai, Well-Being, and Home Robot Acceptance in Japanese Older Adults: Mixed Methods Study

BACKGROUND

Ikigai (meaning or purpose in life) is a concept understood by most older adults in Japan. The term has also garnered international attention, with recent academic attempts to map it to concepts in the Western well-being literature. In addition, efforts to use social and home robots to increase well-being have grown; however, they have mostly focused on hedonic well-being (eg, increasing happiness and decreasing loneliness) rather than eudaimonic well-being (eg, fostering meaning or purpose in life).

OBJECTIVE

First, we explored how Japanese older adults experience ikigai and relate these to concepts in the Western well-being literature. Second, we investigated how a home robot meant to promote ikigai is perceived by older adults.

METHODS

We used a mixed methods research design-including 20 interviews with older adults, a survey of 50 older adults, and 10 interviews with family caregivers. For interviews, we asked questions about older adults' sources of ikigai, happiness, and social support, along with their perception of the robot (QT). For surveys, a number of well-being scales were used, including 2 ikigai scales-ikigai-9 and K-1-and 6 Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System scales, measuring meaning and purpose, positive affect, satisfaction with participation in social roles, satisfaction with participation in discretionary social activities, companionship, and emotional support. Questions related to the perception and desired adoption of the robot and older adults' health status were also included.

RESULTS

Our results suggest that health is older adults' most common source of ikigai. Additionally, although self-rated health correlated moderately with ikigai and other well-being measures, reported physical limitation did not. As opposed to social roles (work and family), we found that ikigai is more strongly related to satisfaction with discretionary social activities (leisure, hobbies, and friends) for older adults. Moreover, we found that older adults' sources of ikigai included the eudaimonic aspects of vitality, positive relations with others, contribution, accomplishment, purpose, and personal growth, with the first 3 being most common, and the hedonic aspects of positive affect, life satisfaction, and lack of negative affect, with the first 2 being most common. However, the concept of ikigai was most related to eudaimonic well-being, specifically meaning in life, along the dimension of significance. Finally, we found that Japanese older adults have high expectations of a home robot for well-being, mentioning that it should support them in a multitude of ways before they would likely adopt it. However, we report that those with the highest levels of meaning, and satisfaction with their leisure life and friendships, may be most likely to adopt it.

CONCLUSIONS

We outline several ways to improve the robot to increase its acceptance, such as improving its voice, adding functional features, and designing it to support multiple aspects of well-being.

A multimodal domestic service robot interaction system for people with declined abilities to express themselves

Driven by the shortage of qualified nurses and the increasing average age of the population, the ambient assisted living style using intelligent service robots and smart home systems has become an excellent choice to free up caregiver time and energy and provide users with a sense of independence. However, users' unique environments and differences in abilities to express themselves through different interaction modalities make intention recognition and interaction between user and service system very difficult, limiting the use of these new nursing technologies. This paper presents a multimodal domestic service robot interaction system and proposes a multimodal fusion algorithm for intention recognition to deal with these problems. The impacts of short-term and long-term changes were taken into account. Implemented interaction modalities include touch, voice, myoelectricity gesture, visual gesture, and haptics. Users could freely choose one or more modalities through which to express themselves. Virtual games and virtual activities of independent living were designed for pre-training and evaluating users' abilities to use different interaction modalities in their unique environments. A domestic service robot interaction system was built, on which a set of experiments were carried out to test the system's stability and intention recognition ability in different scenarios. The experiment results show that the system is stable and effective and can adapt to different scenarios. In addition, the intention recognition rate in the experiments was 93.62%. Older adults could master the system quickly and use it to provide some assistance for their independent living.

Making Meaning Together: Co-designing a Social Robot for Older Adults with Ikigai Experts

A sense of meaning and purpose in life-known in Japan as one's ikigai-can lead to better health outcomes, an improved sense of well-being, and longer life as people age. The design of socially assistive robots, however, has so far focused largely on the more hedonic aims of supporting positive affect and happiness through interactions with robots. To explore how social robots might be able to support people's ikigai, we performed (1) in-depth interviews with 12 'ikigai experts' who formally support and/or study older adults (OAs)' ikigai and (2) 5 co-design workshop sessions with 10 such experts. Our interview findings show that expert practitioners define ikigai in a holistic way in their everyday experience and practice, incorporating physical, social, and mental activities that relate not only to the individual and their behaviors, but also to their relationships with other people and to their connection with the broader community (3 levels of ikigai). Our co-design workshops showed that ikigai experts were overall positive towards the use of social robots to support OAs' ikigai, particularly in the roles of an information-provider and social enabler that connects OAs to other people and activities in their communities. They also point out areas of potential risk, including the need to maintain OAs' independence, relationships with others, and privacy, which should be considered in design. This research is the first to explore the co-design of social robots that can support people's sense of ikigai-meaning and purpose-as they age.

Robots for Elderly Care: Review, Multi-Criteria Optimization Model and Qualitative Case Study

This paper focuses on three areas: the first is a review of current knowledge about social and service robots for elderly care. The second is an optimization conceptual model aimed at maximizing the efficiency of assigning robots to serve the elderly. The proposed multi-criteria optimization model is the first one proposed in the area of optimization for robot assignment for the elderly with robot utilization level and caregiver stress level. The third is the findings of studies on the needs, requirements, and adoption of technology in elderly care. We consider the use of robots as a part of the ENRICHME project for long-term interaction and monitoring of older persons with mild cognitive impairment, to optimize their independence. Additionally, we performed focus group discussions (FGD) to collect opinions about robot-related requirements of the elderly and their caregivers. Four FDGs of six persons were organized: two comprising older adults, and two of the other formal and informal caregivers, based on a detailed script. The statements of older participants and their caregivers were consistent in several areas. The analysis revealed user characteristics, robot-related issues, functionality, and barriers to overcome before the deployment of the robot. An introduction of the robot must be thoroughly planned, include comprehensive pre-training, and take the ethical and practical issues into account. The involvement of future users in the customization of the robot is essential.

Assessing the Efficacy of a Virtual Assistant in the Remote Cardiac Rehabilitation of Heart Failure and Ischemic Heart Disease Patients: Case-Control Study of Romanian Adult Patients

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of mortality in Europe, with potentially more than 60 million deaths per year, with an age-standardized rate of morbidity-mortality higher in men than women, exceeding deaths from cancer. Heart attacks and strokes account for more than four out of every five CVD fatalities globally. After a patient overcomes an acute cardiovascular event, they are referred for rehabilitation to help them to restore most of their normal cardiac functions. One effective way to provide this activity regimen is via virtual models or telerehabilitation, where the patient can avail themselves of the rehabilitation services from the comfort of their homes at designated timings. Under the funding of the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program, grant no 769807, a virtual rehabilitation assistant has been designed for elderly patients (vCare), with the overall objective of supporting recovery and an active life at home, enhancing patients' quality of life, lowering disease-specific risk factors, and ensuring better adherence to a home rehabilitation program. In the vCare project, the Carol Davila University of Bucharest (UMFCD) was in charge of the heart failure (HF) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) groups of patients. By creating a digital environment at patients' homes, the vCare system's effectiveness, use, and feasibility was evaluated. A total of 30 heart failure patients and 20 ischemic heart disease patients were included in the study. Despite the COVID-19 restrictions and a few technical difficulties, HF and IHD patients who performed cardiac rehabilitation using the vCare system had similar results compared to the ambulatory group, and better results compared to the control group.

Applying ”designerly framing” to understand assisted feeding as social aesthetic bodily experiences

What could it mean to take a designerly perspective of a robotic eating aid to get a more holistic understanding of meals as social and embodied experiences? In this paper we provide a new perspective of bodily experiences of assisted feeding. We apply ”designerly framing” in the context of meals and Human Robot Interaction (HRI) and contribute with insights for researchers with backgrounds other than design into how ”designerly framing” can foreground social and aesthetic use. The study focuses on experiences of assisted feeding of five people with impairments in their arms or hands. All of the subjects have long-term experience of meal assistance, and four also have experience of using a robotic eating aid. The data collection comprises seven interview sessions held in peoples homes, a functional analysis of the meal experience, and a workshop held at a design agency. The ”designerly framing” is also supported by a theoretical framework describing different types of use to open the meal as a design space. This complements and extends existing knowledge on acceptance and abandonment of assistive technology and assistive robotics for the meal.

Social Influence Under Uncertainty in Interaction with Peers, Robots and Computers

Taking advice from others requires confidence in their competence. This is important for interaction with peers, but also for collaboration with social robots and artificial agents. Nonetheless, we do not always have access to information about others’ competence or performance. In these uncertain environments, do our prior beliefs about the nature and the competence of our interacting partners modulate our willingness to rely on their judgments? In a joint perceptual decision making task, participants made perceptual judgments and observed the simulated estimates of either a human participant, a social humanoid robot or a computer. Then they could modify their estimates based on this feedback. Results show participants’ belief about the nature of their partner biased their compliance with its judgments: participants were more influenced by the social robot than human and computer partners. This difference emerged strongly at the very beginning of the task and decreased with repeated exposure to empirical feedback on the partner’s responses, disclosing the role of prior beliefs in social influence under uncertainty. Furthermore, the results of our functional task suggest an important difference between human–human and human–robot interaction in the absence of overt socially relevant signal from the partner: the former is modulated by social normative mechanisms, whereas the latter is guided by purely informational mechanisms linked to the perceived competence of the partner.

The Progress of Smart Elderly Care Research: A Scientometric Analysis Based on CNKI and WOS

To reduce the burden caused by an increased elderly population and to provide efficient service resources, scholars worldwide have proposed and applied smart elderly care. This paper summarizes the hotspots of the existing literature and explores the research frontiers to ignite future research. CiteSpace software was used to conduct a scientometric analysis of high-quality literature collected from both the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and the Web of Science (WOS). Based on the results of the basic situation description, this article highlights six research hotspots in CNKI and 11 research themes in WOS. In addition, it offers three major evolution stages and three future research directions for smart elderly care research. This paper provides a holistic overview of the smart elderly care literature from two major global databases. The results will contribute to healthcare policy designers, practitioners, and developers by giving them comprehensive knowledge and generating strategies to enhance elderly people's quality of life.

Scenario-Based Programming of Voice-Controlled Medical Robotic Systems

An important issue in medical robotics is communication between physicians and robots. Speech-based communication is of particular advantage in robot-assisted surgery. It frees the surgeon's hands; hence, he can focus on the principal tasks. Man-machine voice communication is the subject of research in various domains (industry, social robotics), but medical robots are very specific. They must precisely synchronize their activities with operators. Voice commands must be possibly short. They must be executed without significant delays. An important factor is the use of a vision system that provides visual information in direct synchronization with surgeon actions. Its functions could be also controlled using speech. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to develop a method facilitating creation of voice-controlled medical robotic systems, fulfilling the mentioned requirements and taking into account possible scenarios of man-machine collaboration in such systems. A robot skill description (RSD) format was proposed in order to facilitate programming of voice control applications. A sample application was developed, and experiments were conducted in order to draw conclusions regarding the usefulness of speech-based interfaces in medical robotics. The results show that a reasonable selection of system functions controlled by voice may lead to significant improvement of man-machine collaboration.

Socially Assistive Robots for Parkinson's Disease: Needs, Attitudes and Specific Applications as Identified by Healthcare Professionals

To explore how socially assistive robots (SARs) may assist the specific needs of individuals with Parkinson's disease (IwPD), we conducted three focus groups with 12 clinicians who treat IwPD. We present a thematic analysis of their perceptions of the needs of the patients, and their own expectations, perceived advantages, disadvantages and concerns regarding the use of SARs for IwPD. Clinicians were positive towards using SARs for IwPD, if used in the patient's home, for motor, communication, emotional, and cognitive needs, especially for practice and for help with activities of daily living. They were concerned that a SAR might be used to replace clinicians’ work, and stressed it should only augment the clinicians’ work. They thought a SAR may relieve some of the burden experienced by informal caregivers, and identified specific applications for SARs for PD. We asked 18 stakeholders (nine IwPD, nine family members) to rate their level of agreement with the clinicians’ statements. The greatest divergence between their views and those of the clinicians was on the topic of using a SAR as a companion, or as a feeding assistant, to which they objected. This work may be used as a basis for future studies designing SARs for IwPD.

Corneal reflections and skin contrast yield better memory of human and virtual faces

Virtual faces have been found to be rated less human-like and remembered worse than photographic images of humans. What it is in virtual faces that yields reduced memory has so far remained unclear. The current study investigated face memory in the context of virtual agent faces and human faces, real and manipulated, considering two factors of predicted influence, i.e., corneal reflections and skin contrast. Corneal reflections referred to the bright points in each eye that occur when the ambient light reflects from the surface of the cornea. Skin contrast referred to the degree to which skin surface is rough versus smooth. We conducted two memory experiments, one with high-quality virtual agent faces (Experiment 1) and the other with the photographs of human faces that were manipulated (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 showed better memory for virtual faces with increased corneal reflections and skin contrast (rougher rather than smoother skin). Experiment 2 replicated these findings, showing that removing the corneal reflections and smoothening the skin reduced memory recognition of manipulated faces, with a stronger effect exerted by the eyes than the skin. This study highlights specific features of the eyes and skin that can help explain memory discrepancies between real and virtual faces and in turn elucidates the factors that play a role in the cognitive processing of faces.

Effect of Robot’s Listening Attitude Change on Self-disclosure of the Elderly

Self-disclosure of life experiences from the viewpoint of integrity is considered beneficial to the psychological health of older adults. It has been shown that people tend to self-disclose more to people they like. Compared to a consistent invariant reward, an improvement in the rewarding behavior of a person has been shown to have a greater positive impact on an individual’s liking for the person. Based on these previous studies, we explored the psychological impact of self-disclosure of integrated life experiences on the elderly and the effect of the change in the robot’s listening attitude on the elderly’s self-disclosure. We conducted an experiment in which 38 elderly participants were asked to self-disclose their life experiences to a robot for approximately 20 min. The participants interacted with either a robot with a consistently positive listening attitude or a robot that initially had a neutral listening attitude that changed to a positive listening attitude. The results showed that self-disclosure of integrated life experiences to the robot had a psychological impact on improving self-esteem. In addition, changes in the robot’s listening attitude were found to promote self-disclosure and enhance its impact on self-esteem.

Age-Related Differences in the Perception of Robotic Referential Gaze in Human-Robot Interaction

There is an increased interest in using social robots to assist older adults during their daily life activities. As social robots are designed to interact with older users, it becomes relevant to study these interactions under the lens of social cognition. Gaze following, the social ability to infer where other people are looking at, deteriorates with older age. Therefore, the referential gaze from robots might not be an effective social cue to indicate spatial locations to older users. In this study, we explored the performance of older adults, middle-aged adults, and younger controls in a task assisted by the referential gaze of a Pepper robot. We examined age-related differences in task performance, and in self-reported social perception of the robot. Our main findings show that referential gaze from a robot benefited task performance, although the magnitude of this facilitation was lower for older participants. Moreover, perceived anthropomorphism of the robot varied less as a result of its referential gaze in older adults. This research supports that social robots, even if limited in their gazing capabilities, can be effectively perceived as social entities. Additionally, this research suggests that robotic social cues, usually validated with young participants, might be less optimal signs for older adults.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12369-022-00926-6.

Therapeutic educational robot enhancing social interactions in the management of obesity

Obesity is a chronic multifactorial pathology determined by many factors, including incorrect eating habits and a low level of physical activity. There is an urgent need to promote a persistent change in lifestyle in obese subjects, but very few individuals maintain long-term results achieved after diet therapies. Therapeutic Education (TE) has taken over an important role as a multidisciplinary intervention aimed at improving lifestyle and at acquiring new skills for the management of the disease. However, only a small portion of patients can maintain participation in such programs and fully benefit from them. Assistive technologies, and in particular assistive social robots, are powerful tools to boost independence and improve participation in educational activities. The aim of the research work described in this article is to evaluate the effect of employing a social robot as a therapeutic educational robot helping the expert therapist in the education activity. This article describes the implementation, deployment, and evaluation of a social educational robot used as a TE assistant. Although we cannot provide statistically significant results due to the limited number of people involved in the experimental protocol, all experimental results show a positive trend, indicating that the robot can enhance the social interactions between the patients and the therapist and among the patients, thus bringing to better overall results of the TE sessions, measured with standard tests for obesity management.

Designing Robots for Aging: Wisdom as a Critical Lens

Although the concept of wisdom is ancient, empirical research on it has only recently received attention in gerontology. This coincides with a critical turn away from a deficit model of aging, viewing aging as a series of losses, toward a more supportive and developmental model. This paper draws on this recent work to consider how wisdom can be a critical lens for HRI researchers and other technology design researchers to pay more attention to the coping strategies that older adults accumulated throughout their lives. We engaged in a six-month collaborative design process with community-dwelling older adults. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we found that wisdom as a design concept helps researchers to critically examine how they define knowledge. Wisdom as an accumulation of experiential knowledge of older adults helps researchers rethink the definition of knowledge—valuing computational and technological knowledge—in the field of HRI. Second, wisdom leads researchers to the past experiences of older adults. Although past experiences are as important as current experiences, they are not actively considered in robot design studies for older adults. We hope wisdom as a critical lens could allow researchers to integrate the invisible aspects of older adults’ aging experiences into the existing practices of designing robots for aging users.

Emotionale Reaktionen älterer Menschen gegenüber Sozial Assistiven Robotern

Dieser Beitrag der Zeitschrift Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) beschreibt unterschiedliche emotionale Reaktionen älterer Personen auf in verschiedenen Settings eingesetzte Sozial Assistive Roboter (SAR). In Folge des demographischen Wandels gibt es zunehmend mehr Personen in hohem Lebensalter, welche zuhause oder in Institutionen Unterstützung benötigen. Der Einsatz von Robotern zur Unterstützung wird als eine Möglichkeit gesehen, den gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen zu begegnen. Gerade SAR werden zunehmend für ältere Personen erprobt und eingesetzt. Systematische Reviews zeigen das positive Potenzial von SAR auf ältere Menschen hinsichtlich (sozial-)psychologischer und physiologischer Parameter, gleichzeitig hat der Einsatz von SAR bei älteren Menschen eine intensive ethische Diskussion ausgelöst. Emotionen von Nutzenden gegenüber Robotern stehen dabei im Fokus, da diese einen wichtigen Aspekt der Akzeptanz und Wirkung darstellen. Dabei werden vor allem Fragen, die mit einer emotionalen Bindung an den Roboter zusammenhängen, kritisch diskutiert. Das Institut für Altersforschung (IAF) der Ostschweizer Fachhochschule (OST) hat im Rahmen von Feldtestungen mit unterschiedlichen SAR bei unterschiedlichen Personengruppen und Einsatzbereichen geforscht. Im Rahmen einer Sekundäranalyse wurden eine Bandbreite emotionaler Reaktionen bis hin zu Bindungen der verschiedenen Nutzergruppen registriert. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass sozio-emotionale Bedürfnisse von Nutzenden durch den SAR gestillt werden können, und es zu Ablehnung kommen kann, wenn diesen nicht Rechnung getragen wird. Emotionale Bindungen sind jedoch differenziert zu betrachten, da der Einsatz von SAR, gerade bei vulnerablen Personen, trotz funktionaler Bindung auch neu induzierte negative Gefühle hervorrufen kann. Beim Einsatz von SAR in der Praxis es ist wichtig, alle Emotionen der Nutzenden gegenüber SAR frühzeitig zu erheben und im Hinblick auf mögliche unterwünschte Wirkungen wie (zu) starkem emotionalen Attachment zu beurteilen. Die dargestellten explorativen Studien ermöglichen es, exemplarische Einsatzfelder mit positivem Potential zu definieren, aber auch ethisch problematische Situationen zu beschreiben, um diese in Zukunft vermeiden zu können.

Real-Time Social Robot’s Responses to Undesired Interactions Between Children and their Surroundings

Aggression in children is frequent during the early years of childhood. Among children with psychiatric disorders in general, and autism in particular, challenging behaviours and aggression rates are higher. These can take on different forms, such as hitting, kicking, and throwing objects. Social robots that are able to detect undesirable interactions within its surroundings can be used to target such behaviours. In this study, we evaluate the performance of five machine learning techniques in characterizing five possible undesired interactions between a child and a social robot. We examine the effects of adding different combinations of raw data and extracted features acquired from two sensors on the performance and speed of prediction. Additionally, we evaluate the performance of the best developed model with children. Machine learning algorithms experiments showed that XGBoost achieved the best performance across all metrics (e.g., accuracy of 90%) and provided fast predictions (i.e., 0.004 s) for the test samples. Experiments with features showed that acceleration data were the most contributing factor on the prediction compared to gyroscope data and that combined data of raw and extracted features provided a better overall performance. Testing the best model with data acquired from children performing interactions with toys produced a promising performance for the shake and throw behaviours. The findings of this work can be used by social robot developers to address undesirable interactions in their robotic designs.

Socially assistive robots for people with dementia: Systematic review and meta-analysis of feasibility, acceptability and the effect on cognition, neuropsychiatric symptoms and quality of life

BACKGROUND

There is increasing interest in using robots to support dementia care but little consensus on the evidence for their use. The aim of the study is to review evidence about feasibility, acceptability and clinical effectiveness of socially assistive robots used for people with dementia.

METHOD

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, CINHAL, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, and EI Engineering Village from inception to 04 - 02-2022 - included primary studies assessing feasibility, acceptability, or effectiveness of socially assistive robots for people with dementia. Two independent reviewers screened studies for eligibility, and assessed quality. Narrative synthesis prioritized higher quality studies, and random-effect meta-analyses compared robots with usual care (UC) or active control (AC) immediately after the intervention (short-term; ST) or long-term (LT) on cognition, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and quality of life.

FINDINGS

66 studies and four categories of robots were eligible: Companion robots (Pet and humanoid companion robots), telepresence communication robots, homecare assistive robots and multifunctional robots. PARO (companion robot seal) was feasible and acceptable but limited by its weight, cost, and sound. On meta-analysis, PARO had no ST or LT compared to UC or AC over 5-12 weeks on agitation (ST vs UC, 4 trials, 153 participants: pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) 0.25; - 0.57 to 0.06; LT vs UC; 2 trials, 77 participants, SMD = -0.24; - 0.94, 0.46), cognition (ST vs UC, 3 trials, 128 participants: SMD= 0.03; -0.32, 0.38), overall neuropsychiatric symptoms (ST vs UC, 3 trials, 169 participants: SMD= -0.01; -0.32, 0.29; ST vs AC, 2 trials, 145 participants: SMD =0.02, -0.71, 0.85), apathy (ST vs AC, 2 trials, 81 participants: SMD= 0.14; 0.29, 0.58), depression (ST vs UC, 4 trials, 181 participants; SMD= 0.08; -0.52, 0.69; LT vs UC: 2 trials, 77 participants: SMD =0.01; -0.75, 0.77), anxiety (ST vs UC: 2 trials, 104 participants, SMD= 0.24; -0.85, 1.33) and quality of life (ST vs UC, 2 trials, 127 participants: SMD=-0.05; -0.52, 0.42; ST vs AC: 2 trials, 159 participants, SMD =-0.36, -0.76, 0.05). Robotic animals, humanoid companion robots, telepresence robots and multifunctional robots were feasible and acceptable. However, humanoid companion robots have speech recognition problems, and telepresence robots and multifunctional robots were often difficult to use. There was mixed evidence about the feasibility of homecare robots. There was little evidence on any of these robots' effectiveness.

CONCLUSION

Although robots were generally feasible and acceptable, there is no clear evidence that people with dementia derive benefit from robots for cognition, neuropsychiatric symptoms, or quality of life. We recommend that future research should use high quality designs to establish evidence of effectiveness.

Participatory Design, Development, and Testing of Assistive Health Robots with Older Adults: An International Four-year Project

Participatory design includes stakeholders in the development of products intended to solve real-life challenges. Involving end users in the design of robots is vital for developing effective, useful, acceptable and user-friendly products that meet expectations, needs and preferences. This four-year international project developed and evaluate a home-based robot for mood stabilization and cognitive improvement in older adults with mild cognitive impairment and age-related health needs. The dailycare robot was developed in collaboration with experts, carers, relatives and older adults, through six phases. Two phases were dedicated to cognitive stimulation games. This paper provides a summary of the participatory design and mixed-methods evaluation processes undertaken to develop, refine and test the robot. The final robot and games were acceptable to older adults, and useful for delivering stimulating activities and providing reminders for medication, health and wellbeing checks. Personalization is required to optimize human-robot interaction, and imagery and speech should be consistent with local users. Functions should be personalizable to accommodate individual health needs and preferences. This project highlights the importance of participatory design and testing robotics in end-user environments, as technical issues associated with long-term use were uncovered. Recommendations for future development and the design of assistive health robots are made.

Home-care robots - Attitudes and perceptions among older people, carers and care professionals in Ireland: A questionnaire study

Many countries face major challenges to ensure that their health and social care systems are ready for the growing numbers of older people (OP). As a way of realising ageing in place, assistive technologies such as home-care robots are expected to play a greater role in the future. In Asia and Europe, robots are gradually being adopted as a public policy solution to the workforce shortage. Yet, there is still a strongly held belief that such technologies should not be part of human and personal care services such as OP's care. However, there has been little research into attitudes and perceptions of potential users regarding home-care robots which can provide companionship and support with activities of daily living. To explore these in more detail, a questionnaire study was carried out in Finland, Ireland and Japan. This study reports findings from the Irish cohort (114 older people [OP], 8 family carers and 56 Health and Social Care Professionals [HSCPs]). Seventy per cent of the total respondents (N = 178) reported being open to the use of home-care robots, and only one quarter had a negative image of robots. People with care responsibilities in their private capacity expressed more interest in, and readiness to use, home-care robots, while stressing the importance of 'privacy protection' and 'guaranteed access to human care'. Both OP and HSCPs identified observation and recording of OP's mental and physical condition as desirable functions of such robots, whereas practical functions such as fall prevention and mobility support were also deemed desirable by HSCPs. There is generally positive interest in home-care robots among Irish respondents. Findings strongly suggest that the interest is generated partly by great need among people who deliver care. Should such robots be developed, then careful consideration must be given to user-centred design, ethical aspects and national care policy.

Exploring home health-care robots adoption in Malaysia: extending the UTAUT model

Purpose

This study aims to examine the possible factors affecting Malaysians’ intention to adopt new technology such as home health-care robots (HHRs) based on the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model. The variable price, awareness and alternative attractiveness were added since HHRs is a new technology in Malaysia.

Design/methodology/approach

This study collected the self-administered questionnaire from 316 respondents who are currently taking care of elderly or disabled people at home. The UTAUT variables, price and awareness were the predictors, and the intention to adopt HHRs was the independent variable, with alternative attractiveness as the moderator. The partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for analysis of the measurement model and the structural model of this study.

Findings

The results show that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, price and awareness significantly and positively affect Malaysians’ intention to adopt HHRs. Alternative attractiveness moderates the relationship between price and intention to adopt HHRs.

Research limitations/implications

The findings provide insights to marketers, managers and policymakers in identifying the right strategies to promote HHRs and thus, solving the problem of scarcity in caretakers for elderly and disabled people.

Originality/value

This study adds value to the current literature by integrating price and awareness constructs with the UTAUT model. This study also examines the moderating effect of alternative attractiveness on the intention to adopt HHRs, which is still limited but significant for developing nations.

Learning garment manipulation policies toward robot-assisted dressing

Assistive robots have the potential to support people with disabilities in a variety of activities of daily living, such as dressing. People who have completely lost their upper limb movement functionality may benefit from robot-assisted dressing, which involves complex deformable garment manipulation. Here, we report a dressing pipeline intended for these people and experimentally validate it on a medical training manikin. The pipeline is composed of the robot grasping a hospital gown hung on a rail, fully unfolding the gown, navigating around a bed, and lifting up the user's arms in sequence to finally dress the user. To automate this pipeline, we address two fundamental challenges: first, learning manipulation policies to bring the garment from an uncertain state into a configuration that facilitates robust dressing; second, transferring the deformable object manipulation policies learned in simulation to real world to leverage cost-effective data generation. We tackle the first challenge by proposing an active pre-grasp manipulation approach that learns to isolate the garment grasping area before grasping. The approach combines prehensile and nonprehensile actions and thus alleviates grasping-only behavioral uncertainties. For the second challenge, we bridge the sim-to-real gap of deformable object policy transfer by approximating the simulator to real-world garment physics. A contrastive neural network is introduced to compare pairs of real and simulated garment observations, measure their physical similarity, and account for simulator parameters inaccuracies. The proposed method enables a dual-arm robot to put back-opening hospital gowns onto a medical manikin with a success rate of more than 90%.

Lost in the diffusion chasm: Lessons learned from a failed robot project in the public sector

Public sector organizations increasingly engage in robotic innovation projects to assist or substitute for humans in service delivery. However, transitioning small-scale development projects into a large-scale context is a notoriously difficult task that often fails, with many promising robotic projects becoming lost in the diffusion “chasm.” We investigate a failed robotic diffusion project to analyze what went wrong and what can be learned from it. Despite an increased interest in learning from public sector digitalization failure, little attention has been paid to how and why seemingly successful service robot initiatives fail to move beyond the pilot stage. We identify three types of explanations for diffusion failure using an in-depth case study of a service robot initiative in the Danish eldercare sector that had a high degree of management support and commitment from key stakeholders. Our analysis demonstrates how the failure was caused by interrelated and context-specific reasons regarding the lack of technological maturity of the service robot (technology-oriented explanations), inadequate problem-solution fit in the conceptual design (scope-oriented explanations), and misalignment between the robot company and public sector organization mindsets (competing logic-oriented explanations). We outline the lessons learned for public sector digitalization and discuss the paradox between the hype surrounding robot innovations and their slow diffusion.

User perspectives on emotionally aligned social robots for older adults and persons living with dementia

Introduction

Socially assistive robots are devices designed to aid users through social interaction and companionship. Social robotics promise to support cognitive health and aging in place for older adults with and without dementia, as well as their care partners. However, while new and more advanced social robots are entering the commercial market, there are still major barriers to their adoption, including a lack of emotional alignment between users and their robots. Affect Control Theory (ACT) is a framework that allows for the computational modeling of emotional alignment between two partners.

Methods

We conducted a Canadian online survey capturing attitudes, emotions, and perspectives surrounding pet-like robots among older adults (n = 171), care partners (n = 28), and persons living with dementia (n = 7).

Results

We demonstrate the potential of ACT to model the emotional relationship between older adult users and three exemplar robots. We also capture a rich description of participants’ robot attitudes through the lens of the Technology Acceptance Model, as well as the most important ethical concerns around social robot use.

Conclusions

Findings from this work will support the development of emotionally aligned, user-centered robots for older adults, care partners, and people living with dementia.

The role of reciprocity in human-robot social influence

Humans are constantly influenced by others’ behavior and opinions. Of importance, social influence among humans is shaped by reciprocity: we follow more the advice of someone who has been taking into consideration our opinions. In the current work, we investigate whether reciprocal social influence can emerge while interacting with a social humanoid robot. In a joint task, a human participant and a humanoid robot made perceptual estimates and then could overtly modify them after observing the partner’s judgment. Results show that endowing the robot with the ability to express and modulate its own level of susceptibility to the human’s judgments represented a double-edged sword. On the one hand, participants lost confidence in the robot’s competence when the robot was following their advice; on the other hand, participants were unwilling to disclose their lack of confidence to the susceptible robot, suggesting the emergence of reciprocal mechanisms of social influence supporting human-robot collaboration.

•

If a social robot is susceptible to our advice, we lose confidence in it

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However, robot’s susceptibility does not deteriorate social influence

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These effects do not appear during interaction with a computer

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Susceptible robots can promote reciprocity but also hinder social learning

Identifying Mild Cognitive Impairment by Using Human-Robot Interactions

BACKGROUND

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is common in older adults, is a risk factor for dementia. Rapidly growing health care demand associated with global population aging has spurred the development of new digital tools for the assessment of cognitive performance in older adults.

OBJECTIVE

To overcome methodological drawbacks of previous studies (e.g., use of potentially imprecise screening tools that fail to include patients with MCI), this study investigated the feasibility of assessing multiple cognitive functions in older adults with and without MCI by using a social robot.

METHODS

This study included 33 older adults with or without MCI and 33 healthy young adults. We examined the utility of five robotic cognitive tests focused on language, episodic memory, prospective memory, and aspects of executive function to classify age-associated cognitive changes versus MCI. Standardized neuropsychological tests were collected to validate robotic test performance.

RESULTS

The assessment was well received by all participants. Robotic tests assessing delayed episodic memory, prospective memory, and aspects of executive function were optimal for differentiating between older adults with and without MCI, whereas the global cognitive test (i.e., Mini-Mental State Examination) failed to capture such subtle cognitive differences among older adults. Furthermore, robot-administered tests demonstrated sound ability to predict the results of standardized cognitive tests, even after adjustment for demographic variables and global cognitive status.

CONCLUSION

Overall, our results suggest the human-robot interaction approach is feasible for MCI identification. Incorporating additional cognitive test measures might improve the stability and reliability of such robot-assisted MCI diagnoses.

Can the Paro be my Buddy? Meaningful experiences from the perspectives of older adults

This study aimed to explore meaningful experiences of older Taiwanese adults who had received a Paro (social robot) companion. Semi-structured qualitative interviews elicited the perspectives of 25 older adults living in a long-term care facility after they had interacted with an individual Paro companion for 8 weeks. Thematic analysis was used in this study as it allows for rich, detailed, and complex descriptions of qualitative data. Analysis identified four themes: Bridging my social bonds; Acting as a comfort Buddy; Relieving my emotional distress; and Encountering Paro with distancing. Although Paro's functioning has some limits, such as lacking speech, most participants expressed that the experience was positive. These findings revealed that the meaningful experiences expressed by participants at the end of the intervention with Paro might provide the value of companionship and improve interpersonal relationships for older adults in geriatric nursing.

Social Robots for Evaluating Attention State in Older Adults

Sustained attention is essential for older adults to maintain an active lifestyle, and the deficiency of this function is often associated with health-related risks such as falling and frailty. The present study examined whether the well-established age-effect on reducing mind-wandering, the drift to internal thoughts that are seen to be detrimental to attentional control, could be replicated by using a robotic experimenter for older adults who are not as familiar with online technologies. A total of 28 younger and 22 older adults performed a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) by answering thought probes regarding their attention states and providing confidence ratings for their own task performances. The indices from the modified SART suggested a well-documented conservative response strategy endorsed by older adults, which were represented by slower responses and increased omission errors. Moreover, the slower responses and increased omissions were found to be associated with less self-reported mind-wandering, thus showing consistency with their higher subjective ratings of attentional control. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of constructing age-related cognitive profiles with attention evaluation instruction based on a social companion robot for older adults at home.

People’s Attitudes Towards the Use of Robots in the Social Services: A Multilevel Analysis Using Eurobarometer Data

Robots have been employed in the industrial sectors for over half a century; however, their appearance in the domestic sphere is a modern phenomenon, occurring in just the last decade. These so-called social robots are carrying out a variety of tasks traditionally carried out by humans, and in contexts in which they must interact with human beings. These kinds of social robots are now being used in the welfare services, providing assistive services and companionship for the infirm or elderly, and even children. Thus, the use of social robots in everyday life has triggered an animated debate about the acceptance of these devices by their end users. In this paper, multilevel analysis is applied using data from the Eurobarometer survey (sample size 27,901, covering 28 countries) to investigate how socio-demographic characteristics and country-level indicators of technological and economic development (the rate of high-technology manufactured exports, the cellular phone subscriptions rate and GDP) influence how robots are accepted in the realm of the social services. The results show that only individual (socio-demographic) and technology acceptance model (TAM) factors influence attitudes towards social robots. The effects of the contextual variables considered were not statistically strong enough to explain the attitudes towards social robots for social services.

Designing Acceptable Robots for Assisting Older Adults: A Pilot Study on the Willingness to Interact

The aim of this paper was to explore the psychosocial determinants that lead to acceptability and willingness to interact with a service robot, starting with an analysis of older users' behaviors toward the Robot-Era platform, in order to provide strategies for the promotion of social assistive robotics. A mixed-method approach was used to collect information on acceptability, usability, and human-robot interaction, by analyzing nonverbal behaviors, emotional expressions, and verbal communication. The study involved 35 older adults. Twenty-two were women and thirteen were men, aged 73.8 (±6) years old. Video interaction analysis was conducted to capture the users' gestures, statements, and expressions. A coded scheme was designed on the basis of the literature in the field. Percentages of time and frequency of the selected events are reported. The statements of the users were collected and analyzed. The results of the behavioral analysis reveal a largely positive attitude, inferred from nonverbal clues and nonverbal emotional expressions. The results highlight the need to provide robotic solutions that respect the tasks they offer to the users It is necessary to give older consumers dedicated training in technological literacy to guarantee proper, long-lasting, and successful use.

A Systematic Review of Human and Robot Personality in Health Care Human-Robot Interaction

Robots have become vital to the delivery of health care and their personalities are often important to understanding their effectiveness as health care providers. Despite this, there is a lack of a systematic overarching understanding of personality in health care human-robot interaction. This makes it difficult to understand what we know and do not know about the impact of personality in health care human-robot interaction (H-HRI). As a result, our understanding of personality in H-HRI has not kept pace with the deployment of robots in various health care environments. To address this, the authors conducted a literature review that identified 18 studies on personality in H-HRI. This paper expands, refines, and further explicates the systematic review done in a conference proceedings [see: Esterwood (Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, 2020, 87–95)]. Review results: 1) highlight major thematic research areas, 2) derive and present major conclusions from the literature, 3) identify gaps in the literature, and 4) offer guidance for future H-HRI researchers. Overall, this paper represents a reflection on the existing literature and provides an important starting point for future research on personality in H-HRI.

Personal Narratives in Technology Design: The Value of Sharing Older Adults' Stories in the Design of Social Robots

The storytelling lens in human-computer interaction has primarily focused on personas, design fiction, and other stories crafted by designers, yet informal personal narratives from everyday people have not been considered meaningful data, such as storytelling from older adults. Storytelling may provide a clear path to conceptualize how technologies such as social robots can support the lives of older or disabled individuals. To explore this, we engaged 28 older adults in a year-long co-design process, examining informal stories told by older adults as a means of generating and expressing technology ideas and needs. This paper presents an analysis of participants' stories around their prior experience with technology, stories shaped by social context, and speculative scenarios for the future of social robots. From this analysis, we present suggestions for social robot design, considerations of older adults' values around technology design, and promotion of participant stories as sources for design knowledge and shifting perspectives of older adults and technology.

Customer acceptance of frontline service robots in retail banking: A qualitative approach

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore what drives customer acceptance of frontline service robots (FSR), as a result of their interaction experiences with FSR in the context of retail banking services.

Design/methodology/approach

Applications of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and service robot acceptance model frame the exploration of customers’ interaction experiences with physical FSR to explain acceptance. A thematic analysis of information obtained through observations, focus groups and participant interviews was applied to identify themes.

Findings

This study identifies 16 dimensions that group into five main themes that influence customer acceptance of FSR in retail banking services: (1) utilitarian aspect, (2) social interaction, (3) customer responses toward FSR, (4) customer perspectives of the company brand and (5) individual and task heterogeneity. Themes 1 and 2 are labeled confirmed themes based on existing theoretical frameworks used; themes 3–5 are additional themes.

Practical implications

This study provides actionable suggestions to allow managers to reflect on their strategy and consider ways to design and improve the delivery of services that involve FSR.

Originality/value

This study adds to our limited knowledge of how human-robot interaction research in robotics translates to a relatively new research area in frontline services and provides a step toward a comprehensive FSR acceptance model.

Are Functional Measures Sufficient to Capture Acceptance? A Qualitative Study on Lower Limb Exoskeleton Use for Older People

Lower limb exoskeletons (LLE) are robotic devices developed to assist walk. In the field of healthcare, this technology has been available for almost a decade, yet it still faces important acceptance issues. While LLE were first developed for patients with spinal cord injuries, we expect their use to expand to everyday settings to benefit other populations, namely that of older people with reduced mobility (RM). We propose a qualitative approach to unearth key psychosocial themes on the acceptance of LLE in daily living for older people. The study analyses perceptions of older people with RM, as well as their entourage, including informal and professional caregivers. Using a grounded theory approach we analysed 12 semi-structured interviews with older people with RM; 2 focus groups with informal caregivers, and 2 focus groups with professional caregivers. LLE were introduced to participants through photo-elicitation. Older people with RM believed that LLE would increase their autonomy. They also perceived that using LLE would make them feel less of a burden for their entourage. Beyond these expected benefits, results captured participants’ ambivalence, dependent on their experiences of the ageing process and perceptions on the human–machine interaction. Informal caregivers highlighted that LLE could provide important relief related to the burden of care. Nonetheless, professional caregivers raised the fear of LLE leading to dehumanization of care. While each group had specific concerns on how LLE use would impact their lives, psychosocial considerations played a key role in LLE acceptance.

Cognitive Robotics

Recently, various types of intelligent robots have been developed for the society of the next generation [...]