GUFO: Three studies in the initial development of an assistive drone for older people living independently

Drones have the potential to provide support to older people who are living independently, but little research has as yet explored this topic. This paper presents three studies with older people to explore their attitudes to having a drone (called GUFO) as a technology in their home and how it could be useful to them. In the first study, a “marionette drone” was demonstrated to participants, showing them how the drone would move and generally establishing how close they would be comfortable to have it. An adaptation for drone of the Negative Attitudes towards Robots (NARS) Questionnaire showed that participants were positive about the idea of a drone in their home, a view confirmed by semi-structured interviews. In a second study, two different drones were flown to demonstrate aspects of the GUFO system: its noise and airflow and its ability to fetch small objects. Half of the participants were concerned about noise and airflow, but the other half were either not concerned or thought the noise a useful indication of where the drone was located. The ability to find rather than fetch objects was considered very useful. A third study demonstrated a full working version of the drone in a larger prototype and the ability of the system to detect a person who has fallen. The size of this version did concern some participants. Attitudes to drones were measured in this study using a adapted version of the Almere model, and again were found to be generally positive. Implications for the further development of drone technology for older people living independently are discussed.