Are social robots the solution for shortages in rehabilitation care? Assessing the acceptance of nurses and patients of a social robot

Social robots are upcoming innovations in the healthcare sector. Currently, those robots are merely used for entertaining and accompanying people, or facilitating telepresence. Social robots have the potential to perform more added value tasks within healthcare. So, the aim of our paper was to study the acceptance of a social robot in a rehabilitation centre. This paper reports on three studies conducted with the Pepper robot. We first conducted an acceptance study in which patients (N = 6) and nurses (N = 10) performed different tasks with the robot and rated their acceptance of the robot at different time points. These participants were also interviewed afterwards to gather more qualitative data. The second study conducted was a flash mob study in which patients (N = 23) could interact with the robot via a chatbot and complete a questionnaire. Afterwards, 15 patients completed a short evaluation questionnaire about the easiness and intention to use the robot and possible new functionalities for a social robot. Finally, a Social Return on Investment analysis was conducted to assess the added value of the Pepper robot. Considering the findings from these three studies, we conclude that the use of the Pepper robot for health-related tasks in the context a rehabilitation centre is not yet feasible as major steps are needed to have the Pepper robot able to take over these health-related tasks.