Here is a link to a short video summary of our work for the SOCRATES EU project. The overarching focus of this project is on Robotics in eldercare. The use-cases have become extremely relevant with the coronavirus outbreak. We often tended to assume that the lack of sufficient professional personnel will be the main reason for implementing and distributing social robots for the older population. Now we see the necessity of robots for maintaining the safety of older adults and avoiding the spread of disease – virus among those who are more vulnerable.
In SOCRATES we (Samuel Olatunji our doctoral student, Yael Edan my colleague and myself) look at the necessary balance between the robot’s level of autonomy (LOA) and the amount and pace of information it should provide (LOT – level of transparency) – so that people will get just the right amount of feedback from the robot (too much may distract them, too little may cause confusion, distrust, and abandonment fo this technology).
Our participants are active older adults who were willing to come to the lab and help us in developing our algorithms and applications. We wish them all well and to stay healthy. We hope to see them all again in the lab when the time comes and it is possible again.
The robot that you see in the film is not teleoperated, it moves autonomously following the user’s path and pace. This is the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/3ruDAcTzPIg
To read more about this work and about Samuel
Human Factors Engineering 