Perception of Social Robots as Communication Partners in Healthcare for Older Adults

2026-05-20

AI Summary

This study addresses the global shortage of caregiving personnel by investigating whether social robots can serve as effective communication partners for older adults and examining the role of positive prompts in enhancing interaction outcomes. For the first time, a multimodal assessment integrating facial expressions, heart rate variability, and subjective questionnaires was employed to compare structured conversations guided by either humans or robots. Results indicate that older adults readily accepted the robot as a reliable interaction partner, exhibiting lower heart rates and no increase in psychological stress—suggesting greater relaxation during robot-mediated interactions. The study also identifies a critical design challenge: the mismatch between a robot’s appearance and its conversational content. These findings provide empirical support and actionable design guidance for deploying social robots in tasks such as geriatric health assessments.

Abstract

Addressing the global caregiver shortage through socially assistive robots necessitates a deep understanding of their psychological and physiological impacts on older adults during human-robot interaction (HRI). This study addresses whether social robots can serve as effective interaction partners compared to humans, and if "positive prompts" can similarly enhance these interactions. We conducted a comparative study with 35 participants (aged 70+). Our multi-modal analysis, integrating facial expression data, heart rate variability, and subjective questionnaires, revealed no significant differences in overall stress levels between human and robot interactions. Facial expression analysis confirmed that the robot was accepted as a valid interaction partner, while physiological data showed slightly lower heart rates during robot interactions, suggesting a more relaxed state compared to human-led sessions. These findings indicate that social robots can engage older adults without inducing psychological strain and are capable of alleviating caregiver burden by performing structured tasks, such as health-sensing surveys. Future work should address the identified "appearance-content mismatch" in robot design to facilitate even more natural and effective interactions.

Problem

• social robots
• human-robot interaction
• older adults
• caregiver shortage
• communication partners

Innovation

• social robots
• human-robot interaction
• multimodal analysis
• older adults
• physiological response