Identifying Specific Reasons Behind Unmet Needs May Inform More Specific Eldercare Robot Design

Many countries are facing aging and aged populations and a shortage of eldercare resources. Eldercare robots have been proposed to help close this resource gap. Prevalence of eldercare robots may be enhanced by more acceptable robot design. Current assistive robot design guidelines are general and consequently difficult to translate into specific acceptable design. This paper proposes a method for developing more specific eldercare robot design guidelines. Technology acceptance models suggest acceptable robots need to be perceived as useful as well as easy to use. As older people often have high levels of unmet need, knowledge of the needs of older people and other eldercare stakeholders can suggest how robots could be usefully deployed. It is further proposed that determining the specific reasons why eldercare-needs are unmet may help lead to more specific design guidelines for eldercare robot form and function, as well as the design of robot marketing, distribution and deployment strategies.

[1]  Elaine B. Hyder,et al.  The ELDer project: social, emotional, and environmental factors in the design of eldercare technologies , 2000, CUU '00.

[2]  S. Katz,et al.  A Measure of Primary Sociobiological Functions , 1976, International journal of health services : planning, administration, evaluation.

[3]  Jenay M. Beer,et al.  The domesticated robot: Design guidelines for assisting older adults to age in place , 2012, 2012 7th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[4]  Ben J. A. Kröse,et al.  The Influence of a Robot's Social Abilities on Acceptance by Elderly Users , 2006, ROMAN 2006 - The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[5]  Bruce A. MacDonald,et al.  Improved robot attitudes and emotions at a retirement home after meeting a robot , 2010, 19th International Symposium in Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[6]  Ben J. A. Kröse,et al.  Assessing Acceptance of Assistive Social Agent Technology by Older Adults: the Almere Model , 2010, Int. J. Soc. Robotics.

[7]  Nora Super.  Who Will Be There to Care? The Growing Gap between Caregiver Supply and Demand , 2002 .

[8]  Peter Robinson,et al.  Developing a practical inclusive interface design approach , 2002, Interact. Comput..

[9]  Ferdinando Fornara,et al.  Robots in a domestic setting: a psychological approach , 2005, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[10]  Fred D. Davis.  User Acceptance of Information Technology: System Characteristics, User Perceptions and Behavioral Impacts , 1993, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[11]  P. Flandorfer.  Population Ageing and Socially Assistive Robots for Elderly Persons: The Importance of Sociodemographic Factors for User Acceptance , 2012 .

[12]  Bruce A. MacDonald,et al.  Acceptance of Healthcare Robots for the Older Population: Review and Future Directions , 2009, Int. J. Soc. Robotics.

[13]  Paolo Dario,et al.  MOVAID: a personal robot in everyday life of disabled and elderly people , 1999 .

[14]  Roland Siegwart,et al.  What do people expect from robots? , 2008, 2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[15]  Bruce A. MacDonald,et al.  Retirement home staff and residents' preferences for healthcare robots , 2009, RO-MAN 2009 - The 18th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[16]  A. D. Fisk,et al.  Toward a psychological science of advanced technology design for older adults. , 2010, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[17]  Takanori Shibata,et al.  Investigation on People Living with Seal Robot at Home , 2011, International Journal of Social Robotics.

[18]  Henrik I. Christensen,et al.  Sketching the future: Assessing user needs for domestic robots , 2009, RO-MAN 2009 - The 18th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[19]  A. Maslow.  A Theory of Human Motivation , 1943 .

[20]  Elizabeth Broadbent,et al.  Designing a robotic assistant for healthcare applications , 2008 .

[21]  Sue Horrocks,et al.  What prevents older people from seeking treatment for urinary incontinence? A qualitative exploration of barriers to the use of community continence services. , 2004, Family practice.

[22]  Ya-Huei Wu,et al.  Designing robots for the elderly: appearance issue and beyond. , 2012, Archives of gerontology and geriatrics.

[23]  J. Forlizzi,et al.  Assistive robotics and an ecology of elders living independently in their homes , 2004 .

[24]  L Gardner,et al.  An appraisal of a selection of products currently available to older consumers. , 1993, Applied ergonomics.

[25]  M. Orrell,et al.  Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE) , 2000, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[26]  Richard P. Bagozzi,et al.  The Legacy of the Technology Acceptance Model and a Proposal for a Paradigm Shift , 2007, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[27]  Robin R. Murphy,et al.  Review of Human Studies Methods in HRI and Recommendations , 2010, Int. J. Soc. Robotics.

[28]  M Orrell,et al.  An exploration of help-seeking behaviour in older people with unmet needs. , 2001, Family practice.

[29]  Ferdinando Fornara,et al.  Elderly people at home: technological help in everyday activities , 2005, ROMAN 2005. IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2005..

[30]  Johan Aberg,et al.  What help do older people need?: constructing a functional design space of electronic assistive technology applications , 2005, Assets '05.

[31]  B. C. Das.  INDICES OF BLOOD BIOCHEMISTRY IN RELATION TO AGE, HEIGHT, AND WEIGHT. , 1964, Gerontologia.

[32]  Arthur D. Fisk,et al.  Designing for Older Adults: Principles and Creative Human Factors Approaches , 2004 .

[33]  J Sixsmith,et al.  Smart care technologies: meeting whose needs? , 2000, Journal of telemedicine and telecare.

[34]  M. Lawton,et al.  Assessment of Older People: Self-Maintaining and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living , 1969 .

[35]  Sari Kujala,et al.  User involvement: A review of the benefits and challenges , 2003, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[36]  Jodi Forlizzi,et al.  The Snackbot: Documenting the design of a robot for long-term Human-Robot Interaction , 2009, 2009 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[37]  Eva Berner,et al.  Semi-Autonomous Teleoperated Learning In-Home Service Robots for Elderly Care : A Qualitative Study on Needs and Perceptions of Elderly People, Family Caregivers, and Professional Caregivers , 2010 .

[38]  Gordon B. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View , 2003, MIS Q..

[39]  B. MacDonald,et al.  Attitudes towards health‐care robots in a retirement village , 2012, Australasian journal on ageing.