Challenges of deploying assistive robots in real-life scenarios: an industrial perspective

With the increase in life expectancy and staff shortage, there is an urgency to understanding the needs of older adults and exploring emerging fields such as social robotics to tackle the challenges of ageing. The paper highlights the importance of providing cognitive support, physical support, reducing loneliness and increasing social engagement among older adults as well as reducing caregiver burden, and suggests that socially assistive robots (SAR) can assist older adults and their carers with such needs. However, the paper also points out that there are several challenges associated with designing and deploying SAR systems, and involving end-users in the design process is necessary to improve user acceptability and adoption. The paper describes the approaches used by PAL Robotics to facilitate real-world deployment of its ARI and TIAGo social robots, and provides examples of how these robots have been used to tackle different healthcare needs.