Japan reported that more than 60 of elderly people positively evaluated the robots those which provided physical assistance [1, 2]. These results suggest Japanese people would be more acceptive of robotics technologies for elderly support than other countries such as USA and EU [3, 4]. Actually there are several support robots which are developed in Japan, as reported in fpsyg.2017.00209 the survey papers [5, 6]. One main Chloroquine (diphosphate) biological activity reason for such positive evaluations is that elderly people feel less hesitation in requesting physical support from a robot than a human caregiver, echoing past research which also concluded that humans feel less hesitation in making high workload task requests to a robot than a person [7]. This suggests the validity of the attitude survey’s results [1, 2]. Less hesitation increases the perceived ease of use, which is one essential factor for intention to use in elderly people [8, 9] for support robots. Robotics researchers have focused on physical support for elderly people including several works on walking aids with robotics technologies [10, 11]. Many researchers have usedPLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.purchase MG516 0128031 May 20,1 /Effectiveness of Social Behaviors for Autonomous Wheelchair Robotwheelchair robots for moving support; various wheelchair robots and simulators were well surveyed by Faria et al. [12]. Kobayashi et al. focused on safe autonomous and simultaneous navigation for multiple wheelchair robots [13]. Other research works focused on the user interfaces for wheelchair robots, such as voice interface [14] and brain machine interface [15]. Morales et al. proposed a comfortable navigation method fnins.2015.00094 by considering human perceptions [16]. Freire et al. have also developed a modality-independent interface for an autonomous wheelchair robot for people with distinct levels of disability [17]. How et al. have investigated the performance of a semi-autonomous wheelchair robot for elderly people with cognitive impairments [18]. Moreover, in this context, several researchers have considered the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The ICF is used to explain the state of function and health of people. Therefore, use of the ICF makes it easy to understand physical capabilities of elderly people, and is helpful to find the needs of each person with different disability. For example, Tanaka et al. have developed and evaluated assistive robots which are designed for people with disabilities, by considering the ICF [19]. Vidal et al. also considered the ICF in order to develop the sound-based environment recognition system which helps in distinguishing different environments for people with disabilities [20]. However, these research works missed to compare robotic and human support, they did not evaluate feelings of elderly as perceived intention to use. Piau et al. showed the importance of exploring the needs of elderly people, in particular frail people, through the reviews of gerontechnologies for aging society [21]. From this perspective, actual use of robots by elderly people to investigate their feeling would be important, but in the attitude surveys in Japan no experiments involving actual robots were performed prior to the surveys [1, 2]. Therefore, it remains unclear whether elderly people really have intention to use a current robot system for daily care. Their attitude might change if their assumptions toward robot systems are too different from the real settings.Japan reported that more than 60 of elderly people positively evaluated the robots those which provided physical assistance [1, 2]. These results suggest Japanese people would be more acceptive of robotics technologies for elderly support than other countries such as USA and EU [3, 4]. Actually there are several support robots which are developed in Japan, as reported in fpsyg.2017.00209 the survey papers [5, 6]. One main reason for such positive evaluations is that elderly people feel less hesitation in requesting physical support from a robot than a human caregiver, echoing past research which also concluded that humans feel less hesitation in making high workload task requests to a robot than a person [7]. This suggests the validity of the attitude survey’s results [1, 2]. Less hesitation increases the perceived ease of use, which is one essential factor for intention to use in elderly people [8, 9] for support robots. Robotics researchers have focused on physical support for elderly people including several works on walking aids with robotics technologies [10, 11]. Many researchers have usedPLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0128031 May 20,1 /Effectiveness of Social Behaviors for Autonomous Wheelchair Robotwheelchair robots for moving support; various wheelchair robots and simulators were well surveyed by Faria et al. [12]. Kobayashi et al. focused on safe autonomous and simultaneous navigation for multiple wheelchair robots [13]. Other research works focused on the user interfaces for wheelchair robots, such as voice interface [14] and brain machine interface [15]. Morales et al. proposed a comfortable navigation method fnins.2015.00094 by considering human perceptions [16]. Freire et al. have also developed a modality-independent interface for an autonomous wheelchair robot for people with distinct levels of disability [17]. How et al. have investigated the performance of a semi-autonomous wheelchair robot for elderly people with cognitive impairments [18]. Moreover, in this context, several researchers have considered the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The ICF is used to explain the state of function and health of people. Therefore, use of the ICF makes it easy to understand physical capabilities of elderly people, and is helpful to find the needs of each person with different disability. For example, Tanaka et al. have developed and evaluated assistive robots which are designed for people with disabilities, by considering the ICF [19]. Vidal et al. also considered the ICF in order to develop the sound-based environment recognition system which helps in distinguishing different environments for people with disabilities [20]. However, these research works missed to compare robotic and human support, they did not evaluate feelings of elderly as perceived intention to use. Piau et al. showed the importance of exploring the needs of elderly people, in particular frail people, through the reviews of gerontechnologies for aging society [21]. From this perspective, actual use of robots by elderly people to investigate their feeling would be important, but in the attitude surveys in Japan no experiments involving actual robots were performed prior to the surveys [1, 2]. Therefore, it remains unclear whether elderly people really have intention to use a current robot system for daily care. Their attitude might change if their assumptions toward robot systems are too different from the real settings.
