Care Robot Orientation: What, Who and How? Potential Users’ Perceptions

Abstract

Exploring the specific field of care robot orientation generates many questions regarding the meaning, content and how it should be conducted. The issue is important due to the general digitalisation and implementation of welfare technology and care robots. The aim of the study was to explore perceptions of care robot orientation from the potential users' perspective. Data were collected by focus group interviews in Finland, Germany and Sweden. In all three countries, potential user groups were represented: older adults, relatives, professional caregivers and care service managers. A qualitative descriptive method was used for analysing data. The data revealed three aspects of care robot orientation: (1) What care robot orientation is, (2) Who needs it and by Whom it should be given and (3) How it should be performed. The need for care robot orientation is general in society. In the absence of knowledge about care robots, it is nearly impossible to know what to ask for or actually seek information about. Therefore, care robot orientation must be founded on agile implementation planning for care robots, with a firm basis in trustworthy knowledge and information and respecting individuals' wishes. This also gives rise to an ethical challenge when care robots are offered to people having reduced decision-making ability (dementia, cognitive impairment), along with the issue of who then should make the decision. The mapping of the What, Who/Whom and How aspects of care robot orientation offers a foundation for the creation of orientation models, which might facilitate structured and goal-oriented care robot orientation strategies.

A Multidimensional Analysis of Robotic Deployment in Thai Hotels

“…User acceptance is the key to the successful adoption of service robots [ 31 ] and depends on several factors. Users from different backgrounds play an important role in robot acceptance [ 32 ], and personal attributes such as age, needs, gender, experiences, cognitive ability, education, culture, roles, anxiety, and attitudes toward robot influence acceptance levels [ 33 ]. In this regard, hotel staff and hotel guests with differing backgrounds may perceive the robot differently.…”

“…Robots must then recover from failure, which prompts a loss of the user's trust [45]. In the hospitality industry, guests expect more than just robots offering goods-they prefer failure-free services to feel comfortable with the service robots [33]. In general, there are two main criteria that robots must satisfy: First, they must offer quality service at an affordable price; and second, they must perform tasks with minimal failure [17].…”

The foundations of a policy for the use of social robots in care

“…While the robot cannot assist physically, it can provide emotional and cognitive assistance [ 15 ]. These three forms of assistance are what Johansson-Pajala et al [ 16 ] consider when they speak of care robots , and the physical aspect is excluded from the current analysis. According to their definition of a personal care robot , which specifies ‘robotics that improve the quality of life of humans, on a non-medical basis’, the social robots included in the analysis could still be considered such robots [ 16 ].…”

“…These three forms of assistance are what Johansson-Pajala et al [ 16 ] consider when they speak of care robots , and the physical aspect is excluded from the current analysis. According to their definition of a personal care robot , which specifies ‘robotics that improve the quality of life of humans, on a non-medical basis’, the social robots included in the analysis could still be considered such robots [ 16 ]. Examples of robots that together fulfil the same functions as the social robots here analysed are Buddy, Paro, Leka, and Cutii [ [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] ].…”

“…Quality of care is an issue often discussed but not quite as often defined. For example, Johansson-Pajala et al [ 16 ] speak of the need to ‘facilitate the acceptance and normalisation of care robots in elder care for exploiting the benefits such as increased quality in elder care and improved independence in everyday life’. The fact that robots can improve quality in eldercare is taken as a given, but we must delve a bit deeper into both the concept of care and quality .…”