Abstract
Socially assistive robots can play an important role in the monitoring and training of health of older adults. But before their benefits can be reaped, proper usability and a positive user experience need to be ensured. In this study, we tested the usability and user experience of a socially assistive robot (the NAO humanoid robot) to monitor and train the health of frail older adults. They were asked to complete a set of health monitoring and physical training tasks, once provided by the NAO robot, and once provided by a Tablet PC application (as a reference technology). After using each technology, they completed the System Usability Scale for usability, and a set of rating scales for perceived usefulness, enjoyment, and control. Finally, we questioned the participants’ preference for one of the technologies. All interactions were recorded on video and scrutinized for usability issues. Twenty older adults participated. They awarded both technologies ‘average’ usability scores. Perceived usefulness and enjoyment were rated as very positive for both modalities; control was scored positively. Main usability issues for NAO for these tasks were related to speech interaction (e.g., NAO’s limited speech library, NAO’s difficulty to cope with Dutch dialect), older adults’ difficulties with taking their proper role in human-robot interaction, and a lack of affordances of NAO. Seven participants preferred NAO: it was easier to use and more personal. Social robots have the potential to monitor and train the health of frail older adults, but some critical usability challenges need to be overcome first.
Highlights
The first law of robotics, as taken from Asimov’s famous novel I, Robot, states that Ba robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm^ [1]
We report on a study that aimed to uncover the usability and user experience issues that socially assistive robot design needs to overcome in order to be an effective and well-accepted means among older adults for identifying and monitoring frailty and for providing health training
After interacting with each technology, participants completed a survey with the System Usability Scale (SUS), and rating scales that assessed perceived usefulness, control, and enjoyment
Summary
The first law of robotics, as taken from Asimov’s famous novel I, Robot, states that Ba robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm^ [1]. Since frailty is a quite recently discovered but highly prevalent phenomenon (the percentage of community-dwelling adults showing the first signs of frailty range between 30.4% to 44.9% in ten European countries while the frail group ranged from 1.3% to 5.9% [10]), social robots may be an engaging, cost-effective means to monitor and train the health of older adults who live in caring homes (and where frailty can be considered to be highly prevalent [11]). We report on a study that aimed to uncover the usability and user experience issues that socially assistive robot design needs to overcome in order to be an effective and well-accepted means among older adults for identifying and monitoring frailty and for providing health training. For policy makers and robot designers, such information is crucial when deciding whether or not to use social robots for frailty screening, monitoring and prevention, and how to design such technology in order to optimize usability and the user experience
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