The use of robots in care is a much-discussed future scenario that raises different expectations. In the coming decades, the proportion of older people in the total population of industrialized countries will rise sharply. In this context, on the one hand, there is hope that robots will be able to support people in living a self-determined life in their familiar surroundings well into old age. On the other hand, the replacement of human caregivers by robots is associated with the fear that people in need of care will become increasingly isolated and socially marginalized due to the absence of important human contacts. This raises fundamental questions about the activities for which robots will be available in care at present or in the near future.

A central concern of the CaringRobots project is to investigate the possible roles of robots and related technologies in the complex context of care - with a focus on mobile care. This requires the cross-disciplinary investigation of research questions from the fields of robotics, social sciences, and computer science. Particularly important is the involvement of people and institutions from practice such as caregivers, clients, affected relatives, advocacy groups, nursing homes and policy makers. Their experiences and concerns will play a major role in the design of the technical solutions. Within the project, theoretical concepts will be designed, implemented as prototypes for specific use cases and tested in real environments such as nursing homes. Ultimately, the goal is to determine specifically what constitutes a desirable, socially meaningful, and technically feasible use of robotics in care from the perspective of those affected.

The project is carried out by a group of interdisciplinary researchers, Caritas Vienna and the Technical Museum Vienna: Prof. Sabine Köszegi (TU Vienna, Labor Science, Project Coordinator), Prof. Margrit Gelautz (TU Vienna, Computer Vision), Prof. Christopher Frauenberger (Participatory Design), Mag. Doris Kaiser (Caritas Vienna, Head of Innovation in Care), Mag. Jürgen Öhlinger (Technisches Museum Wien, Public Education) Prof. Markus Vincze (TU Vienna, Robotics), Dr. Astrid Weiss (TU Vienna, Human-Robot Interaction)