Social Robots in Care Homes for Older Adults Observations from Participatory Design Workshops

Evaluations of social robots for older adults in care home environments during the past 20 years have shown mostly positive results. However, many of these studies have been short-term and with few participants, as well as limited to few countries. Recent evidence, however, indicates that social robots might not work in all settings or for everyone. Therefore, we conducted a participatory workshop with key stakeholders as an attempt to begin to disentangle the many interrelated factors behind a successful implementation. The result showed similarities in preferred embodiment and morphology, differences in behavioural complexity and task performance, as well as a maybe surprising lack of interest in emotional support. It further showed that older adults living in care homes prior to meeting social robots showed relatively little interest in these robots. Based on these observations, we formulate future research directions.