Older Adults’ Perceptions of Supporting Factors of Trust in a Robot Care Provider

Table 5

Professional skills: definitions and examples of factors.

Factor	Definition	Example quote
General capability	Is the robot able to perform that specific task	“That it got the right bottles. Just if they’re gonna just bring me the bottles, as long as they bring the right bottles, that’s all I would require”
Precision	Is the robot exact and accurate in their performance of the task; does it complete the task thoroughly	“That (precision) is important to me…because I would want to feel that it is done right and I wouldn’t be able to trust the robot if it’s not done right”
Consistency of performance	Is the robot consistent in their task performance	“Well, some days a human would do it thoroughly and other days they wouldn’t, so the robot would need to do it the same way every time”
Safety	The task is performed with little to no potential to harm the older adult	“if he dropped me or even if he hurt me while he was doing it. Now…I don’t (know) if I would trust a robot”
Predictability	The robot acts in a way that is consistent with the older adults’ expectations	“Yeah that (predictability) is really important. Much more important than that because you don’t interact with a robot in the same way you do with a person, I don’t think”
Gentleness	The task is performed with little to no potential to harm the older adult	“That they be gentle, and, because I have a lot of pain”