Department of Biomedical Engineering and Health Systems, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Information Engineering and Mathematics, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
Front Public Health. 2023 Mar 13;11:979225. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.979225. eCollection 2023.
Social robots are accompanied by high expectations of what they can bring to society and in the healthcare sector. So far, promising assumptions have been presented about how and where social robots are most relevant. We know that the industry has used robots for a long time, but what about social uptake outside industry, specifically, in the healthcare sector? This study discusses what trends are discernible, to better understand the gap between technology readiness and adoption of interactive robots in the welfare and health sectors in Europe.
An assessment of interactive robot applications at the upper levels of the Technology Readiness Level scale is combined with an assessment of adoption potential based on Rogers' theory of diffusion of innovation. Most robot solutions are dedicated to individual rehabilitation or frailty and stress. Fewer solutions are developed for managing welfare services or public healthcare.
The results show that while robots are ready from the technological point of view, most of the applications had a low score for demand according to the stakeholders.
To enhance social uptake, a more initiated discussion, and more studies on the connections between technology readiness and adoption and use are suggested. Applications being available to users does not mean they have an advantage over previous solutions. Acceptance of robots is also heavily dependent on the impact of regulations as part of the welfare and healthcare sectors in Europe.
社交机器人承载着人们对其能为社会和医疗保健领域带来的影响的高度期望。到目前为止，人们提出了一些有前景的假设，说明了社交机器人在哪些方面、如何发挥最大作用。我们知道，该行业已经使用机器人很长时间了，但在行业之外，特别是在医疗保健领域，社交机器人的采用情况如何呢？本研究讨论了可以识别的趋势，以更好地了解欧洲福利和卫生部门互动机器人的技术准备程度和采用之间的差距。
在技术准备水平量表的较高层次上对交互机器人应用进行评估，同时根据罗杰斯的创新扩散理论评估采用潜力。大多数机器人解决方案都专注于个人康复、体弱和压力管理。用于管理福利服务或公共医疗保健的解决方案较少。
结果表明，虽然从技术角度来看机器人已经准备就绪，但根据利益相关者的说法，大多数应用的需求得分都较低。
为了提高社会接受度，建议更积极地进行讨论，并对技术准备程度与采用和使用之间的联系进行更多研究。应用程序对用户可用并不意味着它们比以前的解决方案具有优势。机器人的接受程度也严重依赖于欧洲福利和医疗保健部门法规的影响。
