Towards Placing Service Robots in Elderly Care Facilities

Abstract

This paper presents three studies about the development of robots for use in elderly care facilities and their employment in such settings. In Study 1, we aimed to uncover users’ real needs by observing caregivers and residents in a Danish elderly care facility for 24 hours. The findings suggest that guidance robots might be useful and that drink-serving robots might not be as useful as initially anticipated in this particular facility. In Study 2, we tested the guiding task on one participant residing in the same facility. The results have revealed several opportunities for improvement regarding human–robot interaction and have provided insights on the difficulty of designing acceptable human–robot interactions. In Study 3, we visited a German elderly care facility, where we conducted a week-long field trial involving a drink-serving robot. Here, we faced several challenges regarding the actual deployment of robots in facilities. Finally, we present some ethical implications regarding consent forms, participants, and recordings of which researchers need to be aware when conducting real-world studies.