Discovering the level of robot acceptance of seniors using scenarios based on assistive technologies

This study examines the level of acceptance of a robot within the elderly. ’Does more knowledge of a robot lead to a higher level of acceptance?’ Scenarios based on assistive technologies have been developed for this study. These scenarios provided knowledge to the two groups which were defined as Group A and Group B. The difference between the groups was the order in which the experiment was conducted. Group A started with a questionnaire first after which they are presented with the use case scenarios. Group B was confronted with the use case scenarios first after which they completed the questionnaire. Participants were observed in 20 minute interview sessions and were asked to answer the propositions on a 7-point agreement likert scale. The goal was to discover whether there is significant difference between group A without prior knowledge of the robot’s capabilities and group B which had prior knowledge before completing the questionnaire. Results show, although no evidence of significant difference was detected except for one proposition, that the mere part of the propositions were answered with a higher level of acceptance when seniors are informed of the robots capabilities. This study suggests that the more knowledge the senior has acquired, the higher the level of acceptance will be.