The Attitudes and Perceptions of Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment Toward an Assistive Robot

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore perceived difficulties and needs of older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and their attitudes toward an assistive robot to develop appropriate robot functionalities. Twenty subjects were recruited to participate in either a focus group or an interview. Findings revealed that although participants reported difficulties in managing some of their daily activities, they did not see themselves as needing assistance. Indeed, they considered that they were capable of coping with difficulties with some compensatory strategies. They therefore declared that they did not need or want a robot for the moment but that they considered it potentially useful either for themselves in the future or for other older adults suffering from frailty, loneliness, and disability. Factors underlying unwillingness to adopt an assistive robot were discussed. These issues should be carefully addressed in the design and diffusion processes of an assistive robot.

Case Report: Implications of Doing Research on Socially Assistive Robots in Real Homes

“…The appearance and behaviour of robots will most likely affect the meaning people ascribe them. In our study the participants wanted the robot to be more social, intelligent and spontaneous, which confirms findings from other home trials [16,46,70].…”

“…However, at home in a familiar environment the participants easily fell back into their old media consumption habits and patterns. Our findings confirm the results of prior research [46,70] showing that older people can see the potential of reminders, entertainment, telecommunication, etc., but that at the same time, they do not perceive the usefulness of a robot that provides the same functionalities that are already available in existing systems.…”

“…Insights like this about other, more fragile older people needing a robot were similar to those of previous studies [44,70]. The participant who had the most technical experience (a retired engineer) took it as her task to systematically evaluate the robot actions and interactions at home.…”

“…The robot was unable to meet the users' expectations in its ability to understand and react to human speech. Other studies have also shown that older people would like the robots they are testing to be more intelligent, social and spontaneous [16,46,70]. In our case study, all the participants said that they liked the appearance of the robot and that it was perceived as kind.…”

Acceptance of Robot-Era system: results of robotic services in smart environments with older adults (Preprint)

“…For this reason, in recent years, many studies have been conducted to evaluate the acceptance of robots by elderly users [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30].…”