THE ROBOTS IN ELDERLY CARE

In the wake of fast aging of populations the question is asked about the acceptance of robots by elderly individuals and their role in elderly's every-day life. The project ENRICHME - Enabling Robot and assisted living environment for Independent Care and Health Monitoring of the Elderly (which receives funding from the European Union H2020 Programme; Grant Agreement No: 643691C) employs a mobile service robot for long-term human monitoring and interaction, in order to optimise the independence of elderly individuals. For this reason, it is important to explore and assess the impact of such a system on the final users' life (elderly, caregivers, social reference group). Thus, the aim of the study was to develop a tool to collect opinions about the robot-related requirements and check its usefulness. In this paper, we present the first results of the Users' Needs, Requirements and Abilities Questionnaire (UNRAQ). The tool was developed based on the literature review and ENRICHME researcher's expertise. Data collected by means of a creativity box- a part of the UNRAQ enabling the participants to express freely their ideas, worries, and critical opinions are presented. During the interviews pictures of the prototype of the robot were shown to the participants so as to provide them with a more realistic view of the robot concept. Data were collected in the countries involved in the ENRICHME project: France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and UK. However, so far only the results gathered from Polish participants are included. The results gathered from only 166 Polish participants are presented here. The analysis of opinions presented in the creativity box was used to identify five areas: general attitudes towards the robot, expectations regarding the appearance of the robot, expected functions, conditions for safe use of the robot and controversies related to the introduction of robots into the lives of the elderly. In conclusion: based on the preliminary results it can be stated that the use of robots by community-dwelling elderly is generally accepted both by the elderly themselves and younger people: formal and informal caregivers. The survey participants showed willingness to cooperate with researchers in the interviews and expressed their ideas and thoughts. The study results point to the necessity of involvement of end-users and secondary users in the process of designing technological solutions.