Robots for Older Adults: A Scoping Review

The world’s population is aging, and there is a global drive toward developing a new care paradigm to support the older population. Robots have been seen as a unique solution to augment care because of their potential to support everyday living activities. We conducted a mixed-method scoping review of robots for older adults to establish the state of the science for robots supporting older adults. We explored the literature available on robots for older adults and identified key concepts and trends over 12 years (2010-2022). We included 205 studies following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The results revealed a growth in the range of studies evaluating robots for older adults. Key findings include characteristics of older adults involved in the research, the types of robots used, the tasks focused on, and the contexts for robot interaction and evaluation with older adults. This review provides valuable analysis and insights, offering research evidence for researchers, robot companies, and home care support personnel seeking to identify the potential of robots and advance design and application of robots to support older adults.