Design and Evaluation of Two Robotic Furnishings Partnering with Each Other and Their Users to Enable Independent Living

Abstract

We introduce a pair of domestic, robotic furnishings aimed at improving the ability of people to live and work independently. The robotic pair--a mobile, robot-cube and a continuum-robotic lamp-- work together with their human cohabitants to perform routine tasks of daily living enumerated in the 'CS-PFP10' protocol used by rehabilitation therapists to evaluate the capacity for independent living. The iterative design and basic behaviors of the robot pair are considered in this paper, as are results from a formative user evaluation involving older adults and a second study involving twelve clinical staff from a rehabilitation hospital. Finally, we offer recommendations that generalize to related efforts. As robots will inevitably become part of domestic routines, reporting on this robot pair serves as a design exemplar for future development of domestic robots that enable and dignify older individuals.