Abstract:
Many countries around the world are faced with challenges relating to an increasingly aging population and growing shortage of caregivers to support them. Robots, along with other technology solutions, hold significant promise to fill this gap. However, it has not yet been fully considered how these capabilities could be integrated into the daily lives of professional caregivers and care recipients. In this talk, I will present a research program that seeks to uncover the needs of these two key user groups to understand how assistive robots can be successfully integrated into senior living communities. First, we worked with professional caregivers using ethnographic and co-design methods to identify their workflows and needs from robotic assistance. Second, we developed a novel method called Situated Participatory Design to work with residents of a senior living community to explore how a robot could fit into their day-to-day lives. I will present results from both of these field studies and discuss the complex set of factors that influence how assistive robots need to be personalized to succeed in the complex caregiving ecosystem.