Presentation
Professional Caregiver Perceptions of Assistive Robot Support for Older Adults
DescriptionMany older adults in the increasingly large aging population experience aging-related impairments, which may limit their capabilities. Over 35% of people aged 65+ in the United States, are estimated to live with a cognitive or physical impairment. They may need assistance with cognitive tasks such as reminders to complete a task or physical tasks such as delivering an object. Given limited resources to assist with individualized care, assistive robots could be used to augment care in home settings. Professional caregivers working with assistive robots could be a model for promoting older adults’ autonomy, enhancing safety, reducing caregiver burden, and lowering healthcare costs. For this approach to succeed, the caregivers need to be engaged in the design and deployment planning for assistive robots. We used a participatory design approach to obtain their expertise and input and to assess their willingness to interact with assistive robots in their jobs.
We recruited professional caregivers with at least six months of work experience to interact with a robot in a home simulation setting. There were six participants, all female: a registered nurse, a home healthcare caregiver, an occupational therapist, a caregiver supervisor, and two directors (therapy services/wellness and community engagement and assisted living). We explored their interactions with the Stretch robot, developed by Hello Robot, which is a mobile manipulator robot designed to support everyday activities with a lightweight telescoping arm mounted on a mobile base. The robot was embedded in the simulated home space of the McKechnie Family Life Home at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This project was a collaborative effort between Hello Robot, the company developing the robot, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), whose research personnel guided the design and execution of the project.
A mixed-methods approach was used wherein participants completed questionnaires assessing their robot familiarity and use, and proficiency with technology (i.e., mobile devices). Then participants were progressively exposed to Stretch by first watching Stretch function in home settings in video recordings, then observing it in-person interacting with a research team member, then interacting with it themselves, and finally remotely controlling the robot to understand how they might operate it outside of an older adults’ home. During the study, research team members monitored the robot's actions to ensure it performed as expected and the safety of operations. Participants were asked to think-aloud during the study to share their thoughts as they observed Stretch, interacted with it, and carried out tasks alongside it. We conducted a semi-structured interview to explore their perspectives about the robot and the potential to support them in caring for older adults.
Quantitative results revealed that participants were unfamiliar with most types of robots, which was assessed from the Robot Familiarity and Use Questionnaire, and were proficient in using technology (i.e., mobile devices), measured from the Mobile Device Proficiency Questionnaire. We assessed usability through the System Usability Scale (SUS). This 10-item questionnaire has five response options, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. After interacting with Stretch, participants reported positive usability with Stretch (M=75.8, SD=5.85). The mean SUS evaluation indicated higher perceived usability than the widely accepted score of 68. We also administered Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness questions from the Technology Acceptance Model Questionnaire (quantified on a Likert scale from 1 (extremely unlikely) to 7 (extremely likely)). The results for perceived ease of use (M=6.2, SD=0.58) and usefulness (M=6.1, SD=1.07) were high, indicating the likelihood that they would be willing to use the robot in their work. We provided a questionnaire to assess participants’ likelihood to use Stretch for various activities of daily living (quantified on a Likert scale from 1 (very unlikely) to 5 (very likely)) and found that use for social, safety, reminder, and delivery tasks (amongst others) were rated highly. We assessed workload using Stretch through the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) questionnaire on a scale of 1 – 21, from very low to very high. They reported low perceived workload while interacting with Stretch and testing the interface (M=9.1, SD=5.51). A robot trust questionnaire was used to evaluate their willingness to trust the robot before and after interacting with the robot (quantified on a Likert scale of 1-5, from strongly disagree to strongly agree). Participants rarely dropped in rating for any of the trust items after interacting with Stretch. On average, willingness to trust increased by about 15.8% after interacting with Stretch (Mbefore=3.33, Mafter=3.86).
The qualitative data from the semi-structured interview revealed the caregivers’ insights about using Stretch for cognitive and physical assistance as well as social participation. Comments described use of the robot as a partner, for example, “It's a great tool to either help people who live by themselves or … help the caregiver”. Most of their comments about the interface revealed the ease of using it. One of the PCs commented, “I'm not feeling like I'm like looking at this huge screen with a bunch of controls; it's not overwhelming”. They provided ideas about cues that Stretch could provide to assist an older adult (e.g., a reminder to take medication), physical activities that Stretch could help with for safety management (e.g. picking up fall hazards), and how the robot’s ability to connect with others (via a connected tablet) could be utilized (e.g., by making calls to healthcare staff). One of them commented, “…I think the biggest thing would be just telling it to go get a specific item, I think getting my phone, go get my drink, go get, you know, the TV remote, I think those would be some of the biggest ones”. They identified the potential and benefits of the robot working alongside them to enhance the quality of care they provide to older adults.
Overall, this mixed methods participatory design approach provided valuable insights and perspectives from professional caregivers about how Stretch could help with the needs of their care recipients, and in turn, in their own caregiving. In general, they were positive about the potential of integrating an assistive robot into their workflow to augment care. Their ideas inform the design of a robot to assist older adults with tasks related to their health and overall quality of life.
Acknowledgments: This research is funded by the National Institute on Aging (National Institutes of Health) Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant #2R44AG072982-02. This is a collaborative project between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Hello Robot, and we appreciate their support for this study.
We recruited professional caregivers with at least six months of work experience to interact with a robot in a home simulation setting. There were six participants, all female: a registered nurse, a home healthcare caregiver, an occupational therapist, a caregiver supervisor, and two directors (therapy services/wellness and community engagement and assisted living). We explored their interactions with the Stretch robot, developed by Hello Robot, which is a mobile manipulator robot designed to support everyday activities with a lightweight telescoping arm mounted on a mobile base. The robot was embedded in the simulated home space of the McKechnie Family Life Home at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This project was a collaborative effort between Hello Robot, the company developing the robot, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), whose research personnel guided the design and execution of the project.
A mixed-methods approach was used wherein participants completed questionnaires assessing their robot familiarity and use, and proficiency with technology (i.e., mobile devices). Then participants were progressively exposed to Stretch by first watching Stretch function in home settings in video recordings, then observing it in-person interacting with a research team member, then interacting with it themselves, and finally remotely controlling the robot to understand how they might operate it outside of an older adults’ home. During the study, research team members monitored the robot's actions to ensure it performed as expected and the safety of operations. Participants were asked to think-aloud during the study to share their thoughts as they observed Stretch, interacted with it, and carried out tasks alongside it. We conducted a semi-structured interview to explore their perspectives about the robot and the potential to support them in caring for older adults.
Quantitative results revealed that participants were unfamiliar with most types of robots, which was assessed from the Robot Familiarity and Use Questionnaire, and were proficient in using technology (i.e., mobile devices), measured from the Mobile Device Proficiency Questionnaire. We assessed usability through the System Usability Scale (SUS). This 10-item questionnaire has five response options, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. After interacting with Stretch, participants reported positive usability with Stretch (M=75.8, SD=5.85). The mean SUS evaluation indicated higher perceived usability than the widely accepted score of 68. We also administered Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness questions from the Technology Acceptance Model Questionnaire (quantified on a Likert scale from 1 (extremely unlikely) to 7 (extremely likely)). The results for perceived ease of use (M=6.2, SD=0.58) and usefulness (M=6.1, SD=1.07) were high, indicating the likelihood that they would be willing to use the robot in their work. We provided a questionnaire to assess participants’ likelihood to use Stretch for various activities of daily living (quantified on a Likert scale from 1 (very unlikely) to 5 (very likely)) and found that use for social, safety, reminder, and delivery tasks (amongst others) were rated highly. We assessed workload using Stretch through the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) questionnaire on a scale of 1 – 21, from very low to very high. They reported low perceived workload while interacting with Stretch and testing the interface (M=9.1, SD=5.51). A robot trust questionnaire was used to evaluate their willingness to trust the robot before and after interacting with the robot (quantified on a Likert scale of 1-5, from strongly disagree to strongly agree). Participants rarely dropped in rating for any of the trust items after interacting with Stretch. On average, willingness to trust increased by about 15.8% after interacting with Stretch (Mbefore=3.33, Mafter=3.86).
The qualitative data from the semi-structured interview revealed the caregivers’ insights about using Stretch for cognitive and physical assistance as well as social participation. Comments described use of the robot as a partner, for example, “It's a great tool to either help people who live by themselves or … help the caregiver”. Most of their comments about the interface revealed the ease of using it. One of the PCs commented, “I'm not feeling like I'm like looking at this huge screen with a bunch of controls; it's not overwhelming”. They provided ideas about cues that Stretch could provide to assist an older adult (e.g., a reminder to take medication), physical activities that Stretch could help with for safety management (e.g. picking up fall hazards), and how the robot’s ability to connect with others (via a connected tablet) could be utilized (e.g., by making calls to healthcare staff). One of them commented, “…I think the biggest thing would be just telling it to go get a specific item, I think getting my phone, go get my drink, go get, you know, the TV remote, I think those would be some of the biggest ones”. They identified the potential and benefits of the robot working alongside them to enhance the quality of care they provide to older adults.
Overall, this mixed methods participatory design approach provided valuable insights and perspectives from professional caregivers about how Stretch could help with the needs of their care recipients, and in turn, in their own caregiving. In general, they were positive about the potential of integrating an assistive robot into their workflow to augment care. Their ideas inform the design of a robot to assist older adults with tasks related to their health and overall quality of life.
Acknowledgments: This research is funded by the National Institute on Aging (National Institutes of Health) Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant #2R44AG072982-02. This is a collaborative project between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Hello Robot, and we appreciate their support for this study.
Authors
Event Type
Oral Presentations
TimeTuesday, April 19:00am - 9:30am EDT
LocationPier 2/3
Digital Health (DH)