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Computing Sciences

Robotour for Seniors - article published

— aino.ahtinen@tuni.fi
Article abstract

In MediaRoboLit 65+ project, funded by Research Council of Finland, we recently got our first joint article published. It is a cool and relevant article, because all research partners contributed on it: Tampere University, University of Jyväskylä and University of Lapland.

The article about Robotour for Seniors in International Journal of Social Robotics presents a unique co-learning model designed for enhancing older adults’ robot literacy. Robot literacy is meaningful and important, as well as interesting learning topic for many elderly people. Elderly people are commonly left out from the genre of robotics, i.e., their voice is not commonly heard when designing robots and their applications. Also, elderly people have limited possibilities to learn about robots, even though they would be willing to.

Our research shows that the participating older adults (75+) were eager to get to know different robots and learn about them. They also had some experience about robots and robot literacy as well, but they lacked a proper possibility to chat about it. Robotour provided such a opportunity. The authentic robots, with which they could interact, as well as hands-on tasks with flexible approach, worked very well. Read more about the versatile findings from the article itself!

After the studies, we continued Robotour in the care homes. This project has shown us the real power of collaboration. We have seen how well all three wps have been working together. Communication is the key aspect. If you don’t understand what the other party means, ask. I think in this project we have managed the collaboration and communication part really well, and we all enjoy this project a lot.

Written by Aino Ahtinen

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