**Author details**

*Collaborative and Humanoid Robots*

may not be accurate.

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

**3. Conclusion**

triangulating the data from multiple data sources that include qualitative research methods [4, 6]. Currently, robot acceptance is mostly measured using indirect methods such as questionnaires, and interviews, rather than direct observation during human-robot interactions [20]. Observational 'in the moment' methods are particularly advantageous to understand the experiences of people with dementia, who may not recall accurately and in detail, their experiences after interactions have taken place. Furthermore, people with severe dementia may be unable to use questionnaires, and reliance on proxy recordings of their attitude and beliefs [12]

The chapter has defined the acceptability of social robots and discussed how acceptability can be understood and predicted as conceptualized by theoretical models of acceptability. It has discussed factors that impact the acceptability of social robots by OA and people with dementia and made recommendations as to how acceptability may be increased. It has been argued that current acceptance models for social robots need further development to accommodate the needs of OA and people with dementia who experience physical and cognitive disability. Models of gerontechnology may be useful to identify the needs and characteristics of OA and people with dementia that are pertinent to robot acceptability. Models need further development and testing to ensure they can fully inform both the accept-

The multiple interacting factors that impact robot acceptance at the individual,

community and societal levels have been discussed. It is vitally important that robots are useful, enjoyable to use, easy to use and that they support the personhood and strengths of OA and people with dementia. Enjoyable social interaction requires robots to have good quality humanlike communication skills. It would enhance the acceptability of robots if future design, development, and deployment of robots are underpinned by strength-based theories. This would ensure that processes are driven by the motivations and goals of OA and people with dementia. It is also important that the context surrounding robot deployment is assessed in-depth using longitudinal designs and that all aspects of their development are guided by

potential users, significant others and health, and social care stakeholders.

Funding: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Horizons 2020-the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020) under grant agreement 643808 Project MARIO 'Managing

ability evaluations of autonomous embodied social robots.

active and healthy aging with use of caring service robots'.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

**30**

Sally Whelan\* and Dympna Casey National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland

\*Address all correspondence to: sally.whelan@nuigalway.ie

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
