Project Overview

Shortages of healthcare professionals and an increasing aging population have placed enormous pressures on health and social care systems. There is a clear global supply-demand mismatch occurring between the rising care needs of our aging population that is quickly outpacing the supply of care workers. Socially assistive robots can be considered disruptive technology that can enable older adults to live healthy and dignified lives, while supporting their care needs. Such technological innovation can be a crucial driver in helping to address care challenges. Although robots have the potential to decrease caregiver workload and improve care outcomes for older adults, their use has been limited in practice with many essentially creating more work for caregivers. This novel project aims to tackle these issues by generating and executing a needed strategic and best-practices plan for the successful adoption of socially assistive “collaborative” robots that provide complementary care and adapt to different tasks. This project will aid in eliminating technological and implementation barriers, while promoting adoption through the unique combination of direct experience, interaction and co-design. A key outcome is the dissemination of a best-practices plan for successful integration of robots providing complementary (not extra) care work.