Welfare technology innovations on the Pepper platform

This report presents three robotic applications for the Pepper platform, co-designed not only to and for but with patients and healthcare staff during two years in the Ostrobothnia region, Finland. Short videos of the applications offer glimpses into the robot behaviour, script, and human-robot interaction in a simulated care encounter. We also describe the participatory process employed in the research and design phase and touch upon main findings in the evaluations of the HRI. Lastly, we present best practice recommendations to Finnish actors considering social robots in healthcare.

• Background of the Vasa InnoCare project

• Rationale of the social robotics applications

• Participatory design process with stakeholders

• Three robot programs for robot-supported care

• Experiences of the human-robot interaction

• Best practice recommendations