Abstract
The aim of this paper was to explore the psychosocial determinants that lead to acceptability and willingness to interact with a service robot, starting with an analysis of older users’ behaviors toward the Robot-Era platform, in order to provide strategies for the promotion of social assistive robotics. A mixed-method approach was used to collect information on acceptability, usability, and human–robot interaction, by analyzing nonverbal behaviors, emotional expressions, and verbal communication. The study involved 35 older adults. Twenty-two were women and thirteen were men, aged 73.8 (±6) years old. Video interaction analysis was conducted to capture the users’ gestures, statements, and expressions. A coded scheme was designed on the basis of the literature in the field. Percentages of time and frequency of the selected events are reported. The statements of the users were collected and analyzed. The results of the behavioral analysis reveal a largely positive attitude, inferred from nonverbal clues and nonverbal emotional expressions. The results highlight the need to provide robotic solutions that respect the tasks they offer to the users It is necessary to give older consumers dedicated training in technological literacy to guarantee proper, long-lasting, and successful use.
Highlights
The interaction between humans and robots has become relevant, especially in the fields of gerontology and geriatrics, to the extent of developing several robots to provide companionship to older adults [1] and to support them in managing their health and lifestyle [1,2,3,4]. The benefits of these solutions can be ascribed to the regaining of autonomy and ensuring the quality of life of the final users, in terms of partially restoring independence and autonomy, reducing workload for caregivers, and economic savings for individuals and government
In the last years, several projects have been funded in order to reach a good level of cognitive and sensory-motor skills of robotic solutions, such as navigation and learning (Robots@Home, Movement, Radhar, Europa, Mow-by-Sat, and Iuro projects), manipulation
The aim of this study was to explore the psychosocial determinants that lead to the acceptability and willingness to interact with SARs, with the aim of providing strategies to support older people/robot interactions, starting with an analysis of the nonverbal behavior, emotional expression, and verbal communication of thirty-five older adults involved in the validation of the Robot-Era platform
Summary
The interaction between humans and robots has become relevant, especially in the fields of gerontology and geriatrics, to the extent of developing several robots to provide companionship to older adults [1] and to support them in managing their health and lifestyle [1,2,3,4]. The benefits of these solutions can be ascribed to the regaining of autonomy and ensuring the quality of life of the final users, in terms of partially restoring independence and autonomy, reducing workload for caregivers, and economic savings for individuals and government. In the last years, several projects have been funded in order to reach a good level of cognitive and sensory-motor skills of robotic solutions, such as navigation and learning (Robots@Home, Movement, Radhar, Europa, Mow-by-Sat, and Iuro projects), manipulation
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