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Article published In:
Social Cues in Robot Interaction, Trust and Acceptance
Edited by Alessandra Rossi, Kheng Lee Koay, Silvia Moros, Patrick Holthaus and Marcus Scheunemann
[Interaction Studies 20:3] 2019
► pp. 426–454

Investigating the preferences of older adults concerning the design elements of a companion robot

Analysis on type, weight and material of companion robot

| Yonsei University
| Yonsei University
| Hanyang University

Researchers have reported that companion robots have had positive effects on older adults with depression. However, there has been little quantitative analysis on the relationship between robot design and depression. To address this, we surveyed 191 older adults and investigated the impact of age, gender and depression level on design preferences for companion robots. We focused on toy-sized companion robots and evaluated three design elements: type, weight and material. The findings show that baby-type robots were the most preferred by older adults. They favoured the lightest weights and microfibre materials, regardless of the independent variables. Moreover, robot weight preferences varied significantly with the level of depression. Highly depressed older adults disliked heavy robots. These preliminary findings suggest that companion robots need to be designed with careful consideration of their physical characteristics and potential psychological effects.

Keywords: companion robot, older adult, depression
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
    • Depression of older adults
    • Companion robots for older adults
    • Design of the companion robot
      • Type
      • Weight
      • Material
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Questionnaire
    • Procedure and experimental settings
      • Type
      • Weight
      • Material
      • Statistical analysis
  • Result
    • Type
      • Three-way ANOVA
      • Two-way ANOVA
      • Trend
    • Weight
      • Three-way ANOVA
      • Two-way ANOVA
      • Trend
    • Material
      • Three-way ANOVA
      • Two-way ANOVA
      • Trend
  • Discussion
    • Choosing the variables
    • Results of type test
    • Results of weight test
    • Results of material test
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 18 November 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.18070.oh
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