Social robotics for seniors: Custom-build versus adapted from existing “off the shelf” technologies

This paper initially reports on a usability and acceptance trial on the use of telepresence robots. The object was to assist the elderly by encouraging virtual social interactions in an attempt to reduce social isolation and loneliness. The trial results were disappointing because the telepresence robot under study had a number of technical problems which meant that the trial had to be abandoned. This has lead us to examine the whole process of building technology to suit a specific purpose (older people at home) versus adapting existing technology to fit into a specific context. To this end, the paper assesses two approaches through the use of two different telepresence robots. We hope this paper can also assist future researchers in this area to be more circumspect in their expectations of the technology. We found that one cannot simply assume that the technology would work and channel all their resources into usability and acceptance testing. It may be the case that a significant amount of effort is needed to get the technology to work in the chosen environment before any acceptance testing can be carried out