Exploring empathy in interaction : scenarios of respectful robotics

As intelligent support systems move into the world of elder care and independent living, their behavior becomes a prominent aspect in the lives of people, raising the question of how to design for such systems addressing older people in a respectful manner. We provide a phenomenology-inspired design perspective on emotional and social robotics in elder care pivoting on the uniqueness and respect for older people’s perceptual-motor, cognitive, emotional, and social skills. Our approach aims at achieving an empathic relationship between the older person and the system by providing continuous, expressive opportunities to allow interaction and meaning to emerge. We illustrate our research-through-design approach with several scenarios and conclude this paper reporting the interview of an older person who experimented with early prototypes of the robotic system.