The socio-demographic development of the industrialized nations calls for concerted efforts to ensure the quality of life in old age. Research confirms, that sufficient and regular exercise has a positive impact on the well-being even at a ripe old age, and thus represents an important contribution to promoting quality of life. However, research shows, that the majority of very old people does not exercise enough, since, among other reasons, external physical activities are unreachable (e.g. due to reduced mobility). This work presents, how a robot can offer a low-treshold reachable, interactive exercise program. The offer is designed for those elderly who have no, or long past, experience with regular exercise training. Based on a literatur search, criteria to promote long-term acceptance are suggested in the theoretical part of the thesis. Part of the practical work was the developmet of the Human-Robot-Interaction in cooperation with a focus group, implementing a choice of criteria to promote long-term acceptance. Next, a prototype has been implemented and used in a retirement facility for 12 weeks from 6 residents. This test use was evaluated in terms of usability and potential problems with long-term use. It has been shown, that the overall design of an exercise training was successfully implemented for the robot. An important indication for problems with the acceptance in the course of long-term use, were the conserns of using the robot without human accompaniment. The next step, before the system is developed, should be an acceptance test, carried out with an representative sample.
Ilmenau, Techn. Univ., Diplomarbeit, 2012