Robots as Welfare Technologies to Reduce Falls Amongst Older Adults: An Explorative Study from Norway

This paper investigates robots as Welfare Technologies (WT), in Norway. Previous studies show that Norway follows the demographic trends around the world regarding the aging of the population, the shortage of nurses, and thus, increased costs due to co-morbidity and multiple chronic diseases. The research question addressed is: Is the notion of WT challenged by the adoption of intelligent robots within home care, and if yes, how? To explore robots as WT, we focused specifically on the case of robots as safety alarms for fall prevention, detection, and prediction as part of the Vulnerability in Robot Society research project, and by drawing on the previous research project, namely Multimodal Elderly Care Systems project. At the basis of our theoretical framework, the paper is anchored into the Scandinavian notion of welfare technology. To achieve this, we analyzed data from different research activities (n = 10, hs = 25) through thematic analysis. Findings show that current WT for fall detection has design and technical limitations, whereas robots as advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems could potentially be a solution. We then discuss the findings in the light of the welfare concept. Finally, we conclude that robots as WT does not differ from other technologies, with one exception: they differ from the traditional way of providing (home-)care, bringing in both challenges related to privacy and safety, but also opportunities for reduced costs, personalized, adapted, and higher quality care in the heart of the home.