Towards Designing a Pet Robot for Older Adults by Young Adults

Social robots such as companion or pet robots are increasingly being used for older adults’ mental well-being. Pet robot touch interactions could have positive effects on well-being similar to those observed in natural interactions with real animals. Designing pet robot interactions for an elderly family member with young adults could create gratitude and memory, thereby improving attitudes towards social robots. To this end, we conducted a preliminary user identification study with five young adults to determine their elderly family members’ preferences for sound/voice responses to touch inputs, using JoyForAll pet robots as technology probes. We report users’ likability of the preferred positive touch interactions, themes that emerged from the think-aloud design for touch interactions, and agreement rates of the robots’ sound/voice responses.