Human-Centered Design and Development of an Elderly Care Robot

Abstract

Constituting to the demographic age shift in many regions of the world, technological advancement in the care sector, to deliver quality services to the elders, is now in more demand than ever. One such advancement is the evolution of socially assistive and care robots that promise sustainable, reliable, and safe human-robot interaction to meet geriatric needs. This paper presents the design and development of Silver Companion: a geriatric care robot for the elderly. The target audience chosen for the research phase is the socially isolated elderly community of East Asia and Central Europe which make up about 45% of their total elderly population. Considering the human-centered design paradigm, the technical and psychological aspects of the robot have been devised. The form and functions of the robot have been based on the product design principles. The whole development journey has been subjected to the identified elderly needs and the robot has been tested under multiple use-case scenarios, ideated for possibly fulfilling those needs. The robot has been equipped with assistive and interactive features like voice interaction, complementing micro-gestures and robot expressions, seamless navigation, and robot perception enhanced by a tilt-pan mechanism, all contributing towards making the robot capable of uplifting the well-being and quality of life of seniors.