The world’s population is aging, and there is a global drive toward developing a new care paradigm to support the older population. Robots have been seen as a unique solution to augment care because of their potential to support everyday living activities. We conducted a mixed-method scoping review of robots for older adults to establish the state of the science for robots supporting older adults. We explored the literature available on robots for older adults and identified key concepts and trends over 12 years (2010–2022). We included 205 studies following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The results revealed a growth in the range of studies evaluating robots for older adults. Key findings include characteristics of older adults involved in the research, the types of robots used, the tasks focused on, and the contexts for robot interaction and evaluation with older adults. This review provides valuable analysis and insights, offering research evidence for researchers, robot companies, and home care support personnel seeking to identify the potential of robots and advance design and application of robots to support older adults.

Mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) has emerged as a possible solution for supporting health caregivers in a multitude of tasks such as monitoring, pre-diagnosis, and delivery of items. Improved interaction with the system is an important part of using such MRP systems. The current study compared two feedback types ('push' and 'pull') for controlling mobile robots via telepresence. An experimental system that represented a hospital environment was developed. A remote operator (defined as a user) teleoperated a mobile robot to deliver medication supplies to a patient and receive samples from the patient while attending to a secondary task involving medical records. The influence of the feedback types on different aspects of performance and user perception was investigated. User studies were performed with 20 participants coming from two different types of groups – users with and without technological backgrounds. Results revealed that for both user types, the 'push' feedback enhances performance, situation awareness, and satisfaction compared to the 'pull' feedback. The study highlights the potential of improving the telecare experience with MRPs through different feedback types.

Caregivers in eldercare can benefit from telepresence robots that allow them to perform a variety of tasks remotely. In order for such robots to be operated effectively and efficiently by non-technical users, it is important to examine if and how the robotic system’s level of automation (LOA) impacts their performance. The objective of this work was to develop suitable LOA modes for a mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) system for eldercare and assess their influence on users’ performance, workload, awareness of the environment, and usability at two different levels of task complexity. For this purpose, two LOA modes were implemented on the MRP platform: assisted teleoperation (low LOA mode) and autonomous navigation (high LOA mode). The system was evaluated in a user study with 20 participants, who, in the role of the caregiver, navigated the robot through a home-like environment to perform control and perception tasks. Results revealed that performance improved in the high LOA when task complexity was low. However, when task complexity increased, lower LOA improved performance. This opposite trend was also observed in the results for workload and situation awareness. We discuss the results in terms of the LOAs’ impact on users’ attitude towards automation and implications on usability.

It is important to encourage older adults to remain active when interacting with assistive robots. This study proposes a schematic model for integrating levels of automation (LOAs) and transparency (LoTs) in assistive robots to match the preferences and expectations of older adults. Metrics to evaluate LOA and LoT design combinations are defined. We develop two distinctive test cases to examine interaction design considerations for robots working for this population in everyday tasks: a person-following task with a mobile robot and a table-setting task with a robot manipulator. Evaluations in user studies with older adults reveal that LOA and LoT combinations influence interaction elements. Low LOA and high LoT encouraged activity engagement while receiving adequate information regarding the robot's behavior. The variety of objective and subjective metrics is essential to provide a holistic framework for evaluating the interaction.