Research on Human-Robot Interaction is increasing as system become widely available and reached a level that enables smooth interactions. Yet, many research projects act in a silo mentality, in regard of participatory, ethical, or legal matters of social robotics. Knowledge about specific challenges is not universal and has often to be transferred from non-robotic contexts. We present findings in the three dimensions: participatory design, ethics for social robots and legal aspects. We accompanied eight research projects on social robots in real-world scenarios for three years. During that time, we spoke, observed, and helped (where possible) the research projects. This gave us specific insights into their work. Our findings work in three dimensions. In participatory design we observed that the trust relationship to users is essential to gain truthful insights and that a mixed method approach is promising. Regarding ethical aspects, we could see that ethical matters should be answered early on. And in the legal dimensions we noticed that the GDPR regulations are a challenge that often requires the help of experts. This work is reflecting on the observation of eight projects and is collecting lessons learned to help future projects and to learn from previous work.

This paper examines the potential impact of social robots on people with mild cognitive impairments in a nursing home. Within a 4-month design case study, we investigated the practices, attitudes, and social contexts of residents with mild cognitive impairment and their caregivers and designed two prototype apps for a robotic-based system. Subsequently, 10 residents, the former nursing home manager, and one social caregiver participated in a prototype evaluation study for 10 weeks. The goal was to assess group-based user experience and social interactions. Qualitative results indicate that the system can support participants in their individual, social, and daily activities and, therefore, consequently initiate potentially meaningful interactions. One key observation from the video analysis was that the participants initiated unanticipated conversations with the robot, which we discuss regarding the prompting character, design appearance, and affordances of the robot in interaction.

While robotic systems in eldercare contexts continue to be a popular research topic, they are still not widely used in these settings. We argue that this is partly due to the absence of control and configuration options for end-users. This study reflects on the design of a smartphone app to tailor the use of robots to local needs. We investigated how care workers used the smartphone app to configure and control a Pepper robot to meet the individual needs of the care home’s residents. We developed and tested the app together with 23 participants from four different care facilities over two years. Ultimately, we implemented a feature allowing care workers to program the robot to meet residents’ individual needs without coding. Results indicate that the app enables care workers to provide residents with meaningful interactions with the robot. Our study shows that allowing care workers to control and develop the robot improves its perceived usefulness and overall use of the robot to both care residents and care workers.