Designing Social Robots that Engage Older Adults in Exercise: A Case Study

TL;DR

A prototype social robot designed to lead users through exercise sessions with motivational feedback, was assessed through a case study with a 78-year-old participant and highlighted preferences for greater user control over exercise choices and questioned the necessity of precise motion tracking.

Abstract

We present and evaluate a prototype social robot to encourage daily exercise among older adults in a home setting. Our prototype system, designed to lead users through exercise sessions with motivational feedback, was assessed through a case study with a 78-year-old participant for one week. Our case study highlighted preferences for greater user control over exercise choices and questioned the necessity of precise motion tracking. Feedback also indicated a desire for more varied exercises and suggested improvements in user engagement techniques. The insights suggest that further research is needed to enhance system adaptability and effectiveness to better promote daily exercise. Future efforts will aim to refine the prototype based on participant feedback and extend the evaluation to broader in-home deployments.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Our prototype exercise session begins with (1) showing a demo video of the exercise, and then (2) actively tracks the participant as they complete the set and (3) provides a break between each set.
• Figure 2: Illustration of Our Software Architecture