Older Adults as Active Carers: Designing Robots For and With Care

Abstract

As the global population ages, Human-Robot interaction (HRI) design is evolving from earlier perspectives that viewed older adults primarily as “recipients“ of help, to a more inclusive approach that challenges ableism and embraces active aging. In my work, I extend this concept by positioning older adults as active “carers,“ designing a robot to help them explore, understand, and reflect on their meaning and purpose in life-ikigai. Moreover, the co-design process empowers older adults as active participants, enabling them to achieve their values through the research process, whether by fostering well-being or providing educational benefits, guided by the approach of “research as CARe.“ In the future, I aim to enhance this work by co-designing for individual aging changes within a community context and advancing the co-design process for older adults.