Taiwan has entered the aged society in March 2018, meaning that more social and technological
resources are needed to solve the problems related to the elderly's companion service.
Companion robots are considered a solution to effectively meet the elderly's service
needs for family escort. However, little is known about the elderly's acceptance of
companion robots. The purpose of this study is to explore the elderly's acceptance
of companion robots from the perspective of user factors. The research was carried
out by a mixed method of interviews and questionnaires. Independent sample t test
and one-way analysis of variance were used for analysis. The results showed that there
were significant differences in the attitude and perceived usefulness of companion
robots in terms of education level, living conditions, professional background and
technical experience. The research found that the elderly living with parents, with
master's (or doctor's) education, medical professional background and experience in
the use of scientific and technological products expressed more positive attitudes
in the responses to the items on the constructs of attitude and perceived usefulness,
while the attitude of those with primary school education and humanities professional
background, with no experience in scientific and technological products, was relatively
negative. Research shows that the acceptance of companion robots by the elderly was
affected to some extent by user factors. These findings can provide reference for
robot designers, industrial designers and other researchers.
