Co-creation of an assistive robot for independent living: lessons learned on robot design

Abstract

To increase the usage of assistive robots into daily life it is important to include end-users in early development stages. This paper propose an iterative co-creative method to refine the design of an assistive robot called ASTRO. Three co-creation sessions were organized involving a total of 102 individuals. This paper presents the feedback collected and provides the results from an evaluation of the final prototype. The results underline that the robot’s design was perceived in a positive way (attractiveness and stimulation domains). Even though the co-creation results show that the function of the robot are also valued, the survey provides a more nuanced view on these aspects of robot design by showing a neutral evaluation of perspicuity, efficiency and dependability.