Needs and user acceptance of older adults for mobile service robot

Abstract

The population in the world is getting older and the need for the new technical solutions supporting independent life of elderly people is increasing. The needs and expectations of the senior people are the most important factors that define the acceptance of such solutions. In the current paper, we study qualitatively with few older adults how a service robot with a multimodal control interface can support people in this phase of life. The results reveal that multimodality of the control interface and functionalities involving safety and entertainment are very important for end-user acceptance. The user acceptance increases if the available functionalities can be customized for different users and if the commands for both screen-based and voice-based control use the same words and phrases. This approach also allows to decrease the memory load on the user. The possibility to customize the interfaces could open broad possibilities to use the robot also by the disabled people.