The Emerging Role of Robotics in Home Health Care

The demand for health care continues to exceed the supply of affordable, accessible care due in large part to the rapidly aging baby boomer population. The advancing field of robotics can provide an effective solution to this problem. This study aimed to develop a set of user requirements for a personal home health care robot. To generate these requirements, we conducted nine interviews with robotics professionals and three different focus groups with current and future caregivers and the elderly. Using this data we identified prominent and desired functionalities of robots, as well as what may influence their acceptance into the home setting. Our findings indicate that monitoring robots have the biggest acceptance potential among elderly and caregivers.