The further implementation of robots in welfare

Abstract

Here we present the development of a new robot application. Using a user-centered approach, the aim is to enable human-robot interaction and promote patient safety in medication counselling relevant to emergency contraceptive pill. Emergency contraceptive pills seemed like a suitable choice because the primary pharmacy customers, being young, are comfortable with technology, no prescription is needed to buy the pills in Finland, and the robot can provide non-judgmental interaction to the costumers. We suggest the use of field study methods in future research in which both qualitative and quantitative data analyses are combined to expose the challenges and/or opportunities inherent to the design of robot applications for use in human-robot interaction.