Acceptability of Robots to Assist the Elderly by Future Designers: A Case of Guangdong Ocean University Industrial Design Students

The development of robot technology provides many possibilities for the life support of the elderly. This study explored the acceptability of robots to assist the elderly from the perspective of future designers. A quantitative questionnaire (58 copies) and a qualitative one-to-one interview (10 people) were conducted to explore the attitude of future designers towards the use of robots to assist the elderly. One-sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test statistic was used to analyze the data of the questionnaire. The results show that the mean and median of 11 of the 12 dimensions of the acceptability questionnaire are greater than 3 (3 represents uncertain and neutral attitude), and 10 have statistical significance (p < 0.05). Also, the interview results show the positive attitude of future designers. The research shows that future designers hold a positive and open attitude towards the use of robots to assist the elderly. The research findings can help people understand the attitude of future designers and provide some reference for subsequent robot design and development.