Will Older Adults Accept a Humanoid Robot as a Walking Partner?

We conducted an empirical study with older adults whose ages ranged from 60 to 73 and compared situations where they walked alone and with a robot. A parameter-based side by side walking model which uses motion, environmental and relative parameters derived from human–human side by side walking was used to navigate the robot autonomously. The model anticipates the motion of both robot and the human partner for motion prediction, uses subgoals on the environment and does not require the final goal of to be known. The participants’ perceptions of ease of walking with/without the robot, enjoyment, and intention to walk with/without the robot were measured. Experimental results revealed that they gave significantly higher ratings to the intention for walking with the robot than walking alone, although no such significance was found in ease of walking with/without the robot or enjoyment. We analyzed the interview results and found that our participants wanted to walk with the robot again because they felt positive about at present and expected it to improve over time.