“Kompaï, go docking please!” — Large scale field test of a social robot in users' homes

Abstract

Usability evaluation is probably the most critical step in product development for the home care market. The DOMEO AAL project targets at high standard with deploying the Kompaï social robot to homes of eight elderly users. Each user is asked to test the robot for assisting their daily activities for as long as three months. The paper describes the functions and services of the Kompaï robot with details of the autonomous and teleoperated infocommunication and control solutions. We also present objective and subjective test results of four users fully and two users partially completed their field tests in 579 days. The use/service aspects of care personnel, operation/maintenance personnel and third persons like family members are also discussed.