We introduce a taxonomy of important factors to consider when designing interactions with an assistive robot in a senior living facility. These factors are derived from our reflection on two field studies and are grouped into the following high-level categories: primary user residents , care partners, robot, facility and external circumstances. This preliminary taxonomy serves as a framework for considering how to deploy personalized assistive robots in the complex caregiving ecosystem. Nations around the world face challenges related to an increasingly aging population Lutz et al.
Due to this shortage, some individuals may not be able to access resources for healthy aging. To address this challenge, recent research has focused on technology that can supplement care e.
Robots, such as the one pictured in Figure 1 , have shown especially great promise in assisting with care-related activities Abou Allaban et al. Assistive robots are being developed to help with not only care tasks that are more social in nature, such as providing medication reminders Prakash et al.
Even tasks perceived as more mechanical in nature could require social interaction capabilities and personalization due to interactions with residents of the care facility and the facility staff, such as caregivers. For example, Odabasi et al. In addition to these social skills, adapting to individual needs will be important for the overall success of these systems. Pollack et al. Other HRI work not specific to older adults has uncovered varying preferences in how robots should approach people Dautenhahn et al.
These components together contribute a wealth of knowledge toward the successful design and development of assistive robots, yet bigger-picture considerations for how these robots can fit into the existing caregiving ecosystem are still underdeveloped.
