Evaluating Telepresence Robots in the Field - Agents and Artificial Intelligence - page 429

Fig. 1. The G IRAFF robot
Key Pursued Ideas. The E X CITE project aims at assessing the validity of a MRP
system in the field of elderly support in different European countries. The project inno-
vative concepts are the following:
- User Centered Product Refinement . This approach is based on the idea of obtaining
users feedback during the time they use the robot and cyclically refine the prototype
in order to address specific needs;
- User tests outside labs , rather then testing the system in laboratory setting, the
robotic platform is placed in a real context of use. This approach is in line with
several research that highlights how systems that work well in the lab are often less
successful in real world settings [10]. The evaluation of robots made in a laboratory
environment does not favor the emergence of robotic aid suitability to support el-
ders who are able to stay in their own homes. For this reason an essential step is to
assess the technology in the specific contexts in which the technology is supposed
to be used [11];
- Use on a time period long enough , to allow habituation and possible rejection to
appear. Indeed, interviews and survey conducted after a short period of time can
be limited and can prevent other effects to emerge. On the contrary, a key aspect
of relationship is that it is a persistent construct, spanning multiple interactions
[12]. In this light, in order to assess the human-robot interaction it is important to
investigate how people interact with robots over long periods of time.
- Analysis of cultural and societal differences , an interesting part of our project stems
in the idea of comparing the long term deployment of the telepresence platform in
different countries so as to allow an analysis of cultural and societal differences
over European countries.
Different G IRAFF prototypes are being deployed for long periods of time (at least three
months, and possibly 1 year) in real context of use. Feedback obtained from the users
(both older users having the robot at home and the clients, that is people connecting
and visiting the older) is used to improve the robot. In what follows, we describe our