Proactive Assistive Technology: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Abstract. This paper analyzes the problem of evaluating elderly people's perception of assistive robots and domotic environments. Specifically, we focus on aspects related to the modalities in which interaction can occur between an elder user and an assistive robotic agent. Our work benefits from the products of project ROBOCARE, namely, a domestic environment in which sensors, intelligent software components and a domestic robot provide a set of cognitive support services for the elder user. This paper analyzes a number of evaluation criteria in detail, specifically related to the robot's aspect, the way in which it communicates with the user, and the perceived usefulness of its support services. Among these criteria, the paper proposes and reports an evaluation of the Proactive interaction modality (where the system takes the initiative) and On-demand interaction (in which the user explicitly requests a service). Users evaluate the On-demand support services in personal safety scenarios as particularly useful, and less so in scenarios which are not critical. The paper also provides a discussion which can be useful for the design of future assistive agents and robotic companions.

Inclusion of service robots in the daily lives of frail older users: A step-by-step definition procedure on users' requirements

“…Prototype robots have been developed to support independent living, in order to help older adults who try to live in their homes for as long as possible, even when the user is functionally disabled. Several personal service robots have been developed, including Aibo (Fujita, 2001), Care-O-bot (Graf, Han, & Schraft 2004;Graf, Reiser, Hägele, Mauz, & Klein, 2012), Pearl (Pollack et al, 2002), iCat (van Breemen, Yan, & Meerbeek, 2005), Robocare (Cesta et al, 2007), Robot-Era robots (Cavallo et al, 2014), or Hobbit (Fischinger et al, 2016). In addition, the robots Huggable (Stiehl et al, 2006), Paro (Wada, Shibata, Musha, & Kimure, 2005), Companionable (Badii et al, 2009), Giraff (Coradeschi, Loutfi, Kristoffersson, Von Rump, Cesta, Cortellessa, 2011) and GiraffPlus (2014), amongst others, have been developed to provide emotional support and other companion functions.…”

Challenges in Seniors Adopting Assistive Robots: A Systematic Review

“…35 The functionalities of the robot connected the user with their family through verbal and visual interactions, sending a video stream in the case of dangerous situations, providing stimulation when the user performed physical exercises, and observing the user's behavior. 35 Cesta et al 64 reported a positive reaction from seniors regarding the use of a proactive robot in emergency situations. In contrast, Zsiga et al 35 found that seniors showed some concerns related to slow response of robots during a dangerous situation.…”

How elderly users of a socially interactive robot experience adaptiveness, adaptability and user control

“…We were able to use video material made for the Robocare project by the Institute for Cognitive Science and Technology of the Italian National Research Council for research by Cesta et al [29,30] (Figure 1). We made four video's of the robot representing the four conditions.…”