Socially assistive robotic platforms are now a realistic option for the long-term care of ageing populations. Elderly users may benefit from many services provided by robots operating in different environments, such as providing assistance inside apartments, serving in shared facilities of buildings or guiding people outdoors. In this paper, we IDLab, IMEC, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium present the experience gained within the EU FP7 ROBOT-ERA project towards the objective of implementing easy-touse and acceptable service robotic system for the elderly. In particular, we detail the user-centred design and the experimental evaluation in realistic environments of a webbased multi-modal user interface tailored for elderly users of near future multi-robot services. Experimental results demonstrate positive evaluation of usability and willingness to use by elderly users, especially those less experienced with technological devices who could benefit more from the adoption of robotic services. Further analyses showed how multi-modal modes of interaction support more flexible and natural elderly-robot interaction, make clear the benefits for the users and, therefore, increase its acceptability. Finally, we provide insights and lessons learned from the extensive experimentation, which, to the best of our knowledge, is one of the largest experimentation of a multi-robot multi-service system so far.

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In this paper we present the design and technical\ud implementation of a web based Multi-Modal User Interface\ud (MMUI) tailored for elderly users of the robotic services developed\ud by the EU FP7 Large-Scale Integration Project Robot-Era.\ud The project partners are working to significantly enhance the\ud performance and acceptability of technological services for ageing\ud well by delivering a fully realized system based on the cooperation\ud of multiple heterogeneous robots and with the support of an\ud Ambient Assisted Living environment. To this end, elderly users\ud were involved in the definition of the services and in the design of\ud the hardware and software of the robotic platforms from the first\ud stages of the development process and in real experimentation in\ud two test sites. In particular, here we detail the interface software\ud system for multi-modal elderly-robot interaction. The MMUI is\ud designed to run on any device including touch-screen mobiles\ud and tablets that are preferred by the elderly. This is obtained by\ud integrating web based solutions with the Robot-Era middlewares\ud and planner. Finally we present some preliminary results of\ud ongoing experiments to show the successful evaluation of usability\ud by potential users and to discuss the future directions to improve\ud the proposed MMUI software system

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