Design Guidelines of Social-Assisted Robots for the Elderly: A Mixed Method Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This review aims to provides a design criterion for the design and development of SARs to help product designers and researchers who are actively engaged in this field. Our focus is on the product users’ three major levels of needs, namely: (1) Functionality - Subject to the users’ physical aging and other limitations, the functions and roles of SARs are derived from different users’ background living environmental factors. These differing factors affects their preferences in what functions SARs could play in their lives, and how efficiently these can be carried out. (2) Usability - This involves interactions between the users’ perception and spatial environment and their restricted physical capabilities. To facilitate the elderly’s ability to move with minimal physical exertion, (i) employ operating methods based on lifestyle habits and past experiences of using similarly related products, (ii) use technological assistance to reduce user learning curve and learning pressure, and (iii) apply multi-modal assistance to reduce the need for change of existing living patterns and habits. (3) Pleasure: Pleasure is derived from emotions, attitudes, acceptances, experiences and interactions. This includes Physical Pleasure, Social Pleasure, Psychological Pleasure and Ideological Pleasure. Each brings a different type of pleasure to the elderly. There is a need for further research the requirements of the elderly for SARs design. From the research results, this three-level analysis provide a set of design criteria for developers to build SARs that are more in tune with the physical and mental capabilities of the elderly user.