The First Introduction of Social Robotics in Rehabilitation Care

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022 May 25:294:890-894. doi: 10.3233/SHTI220619.

Abstract

Can you imagine to receive treatment through a robot? When talking about the future of healthcare, this is the vision many people have. Currently, the predominant role of social robots in care is entertaining patients. However, this does not have an impact on care process itself. In this paper, we focus on defining use cases other than merely keeping patients' company by implementing a Pepper robot in inpatient rehabilitation setting, and expand upon usability testing the use cases. Our findings showed that, to ensure sustainable implementation of social robots in care organizations, we need excessive collaboration with the target population.

Keywords: Social robots; rehabilitation care; usability; use cases.

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Rehabilitation*
  • Robotics*