Mixed-Method Long-Term Robot Usage: Older Adults' Lived Experience of Social Robots

Abstract

In the past two decades, human-robot interaction (HRI) researchers have increasingly deployed autonomous and reliable robots long-term in various social contexts including the home. Our work provides a mixed-method approach for analyzing older adults' long-term robot usage data patterns combining quantitative data of robot usage logs with qualitative descriptions from participants' own experience. Overall, this provides a fuller picture to how older adults use and experience social robots in their homes. Our work involves a robot hosting period for at least a month (up to 12 months) in older adults' homes with an experience debrief session held a month into the robot hosting time period. We propose reflections on the novelty effect with respect to older adults' usage data and highlight feelings of guilt, the robot's proactivity and movement, meeting (or not meeting) user expectations, and the robot's persona as key aspects of the hosting experience that promoted usage or non-usage. Finally, we provide design guidelines for structuring future mixed-method long-term robot usage studies being mindful of ethical considerations in this space.