A roadmap to evaluate the usage of telepresence robots in elderly care centers

Abstract

Aging is a natural process during which a person’s physical and mental condition will degrade, imposing limitations on their lifestyle. The consequences of aging can be aggravated when the elderly permanently move to an elderly care center, causing a decline in social relations and contact with family and friends, with negative effects on the person’s well-being. Therefore, it is important to act to maintain these relationships in the later stages of life. In this work we propose a roadmap to introduce and evaluate the usage of telepresence robots in elderly care centers, so that family and friends can interact with the elderly more often and with better quality. The proposal defines a set of steps to introduce the robots into the care center environment, as well as an evaluation methodology to assess the success of implementing the roadmap.