Getting to Know and Interacting with the Social Robot Zenbo™: An Exploratory Study with Brazilian Older Adults

Social robots have been seen as a potential tool to assist older people in various activities. However, little is known on the perception of older people about this type of technology in a country like Brazil, where technological access is limited. Before promoting studies aimed at using social robots for this target audience, it is necessary to understand how they will receive these devices. This paper reports an exploratory study that evaluated the perception of older people, at a university open for the elderly in Brazil, about a social robot. The results showed that, although seen as a great novelty, most participants were quite receptive to the idea of having a social robot helping them in some activities or even being an occasional companion. As a limitation, the robot is not prepared to communicate in Portuguese.