Potential of Robotics for Ambient Assited Living

Both robotics and AAL are young and interdisciplinary areas of research with numerous interfaces to other branches of R & D. Consequently, the field of "AAL Robotics", combining both disciplines, has not yet been precisely defined and does not present accepted structures and concepts that would allow to communicate unequivocally its methods, projects, and approaches.

The last few years have witnessed an intensification of efforts in AAL Robotics within the AAL community but also in the HRI and robotics research communities at large, as is illustrated by prototypes developed, for example, in the projects Domeo, Hobbit, KSERA, Companionable, etc. which have demonstrated a multitude of positive (as well as some negative) effects of assistive robots.

These and other projects have resulted in channelling more funding into the AAL Robotics domain. However, a deficit persists with regard to studies that analyse the potential of assistive service robots from the perspectives of actual satisfaction of user needs, technical readiness, ethics, law, and commercialization.

The central aim of the study is the realistic presentation of the potential of AAL Robotics, based on the analysis of parameters drawn from user needs, technical readiness, and existing business models.

Instead of compiling yet another collection of individual solutions and projects, the PotenziAAL Study aggregates existing knowledge gained from analysis of secondary sources with knowledge generated from primary sources such as expert interviews, a workshop and user focus groups in order to achieve a comprehensive picture of the state of the art in AAL Robotics and its future potential.

The study will develop categories and criteria in order to foster exact characterization, comparability and quality assurance in AAL Robotics.