User-centered feedback design in person-following robots for older adults

摘要

Feedback design is an important aspect inperson-following robots for older adults. This paperpresents a user-centered design approach to ensure thedesign is focused on users’ needs and preferences. A sequence of user studies with a total of 35 older adults (aged62 years and older) was conducted to explore their preferences regarding feedback parameters for a socially assistive person-following robot. The preferred level of robottransparency and the desired content for the feedback wasfrst explored. This was followed by an assessment of thepreferred mode and timing of feedback. The chosen feedback parameters were then implemented and evaluated ina fnal experiment to evaluate the e?ectiveness of the design. Results revealed that older adults preferred to receiveonly basic status information. They preferred voice feedback over tone, and at a continuous rate to keep them constantly aware of the state and actions of the robot. The outcome of the study is a further step towards feedback design guidelines that could improve interaction quality inperson-following robots for older adults.