Collaborative modeling for robot design
In this poster, we describe a method for using grounded theory and modeling to support collaborative design of social robots for the elderly. Robotic technologies are being designed to assist people in their everyday lives in various ways: as companions [9], domestic helpers [4], receptionists [1], and educational aids [8]. In response to the steadily rising average age of the population in the US, Europe, and Japan, the elderly are often designated as an appropriate audience for assistive robotic technologies. Designing robots for the elderly poses a variety of social challenges—understanding the specific needs and desires of the elderly, supporting independence and human dignity, and making sure that technologies can be successfully incorporated into existing social and physical environments, or “elder ecologies” [3]. These challenges suggest that designing robots for the elderly calls for attention to individual attitudes towards technologies as well as community norms and practices of social interaction and technology use.