In response to demographic shifts contributing to an older population, limited health and social care budgets and staff shortages in institutionalised care for older adults, caring robots are increasingly imagined as potential caregivers for older adults. During the past 20 years, several initiatives have sought to design, develop, and deploy robots in care environments, focusing on robots assisting with, for example, physical and cognitive training, or providing social companionship. In this workshop we want to focus on the concept of care in the development and use of care robots for older adults. We are interested in: What different understandings of care are at play in care robotics for older adults, which practical implementation factors are there (such as infrastructure, WIFI, staff digital health literacy, investment potential), and how are care robots perceived by different key stakeholders (such as older adults, care staff, family, municipalities/care companies). We want to encourage critical reflection around these questions and invite creative ideas for how to design care robots for older adults.  

The aim of this half-day workshop is to provide a forum to share and learn about recent research and experiences with care robotics for older adults. The workshop will be a hybrid event.

We welcome participants to submit abstracts, of 1-2 pages, excluding references, covering any topic that could contribute to the discussion around care in the context of care robots. We welcome also ongoing work. Possible topics welcomed for this workshop include, but are not limited to:

• Theoretical approaches that help problematise care in care for older adults 
• Empirical studies of the use of care robots  
• Norm critical design approaches to care robots
• Technical solutions & designs for enhancing care of older adults
• Discussions of societal, political & ethical implications of care robots for older adults
• Engagement of key stakeholders and navigation of conflicting needs when implementing care robots
• How to go from a lab environment to studies in the wild to actual products considering e.g., social and technical failures, different stakeholders, nurse workload