Around the World with Paro: Challenges in Designing and Using Assistive Robots across Cultures

INTRODUCTION This paper reviews literature from cultural psychology and human-robot interaction and uses the seallike robot PARO as a case study to describe cultural factors that can affect the acceptance and use of socially assistive robots (SARs) and propose a culturally comparative research agenda and framework that is generally applicable to the field. PARO is a seal-like robot developed to simulate pet therapy and produce mental, physical and psychological benefits in users, which include older adults with various levels of cognitive and physical impairment [1]. PARO was initially developed and evaluated in Japan and is currently used in thirty countries around the world; it became commercially available in Japan in 2005 and in Europe and the US in 2009. PARO’s therapeutic effects have been studied in multiple countries, but there has been little comparative research about user acceptance and practices. Surveys in Europe and Asia suggest cultural variability in the way people initially perceive PARO: while user impressions are positive overall, European users focus on PARO’s similarity to a real animal, while users in Japan and South Korea emphasize its interactive capabilities as the most positive trait [2].