The Social Awareness Index as a Tool to Determine the Role of a Companion Robot in the Lives of People with Reduced Mobility

Emilia Kwiatkowska, Marcin Janusz, Marek Piotrowski, Karolina Krzykowska-Piotrowska () and Ivano Dileo
Additional contact information
Emilia Kwiatkowska: Spatial Planning Office of the Lodz Region in Lodz, Regional Territorial Observatory, al. Piłsudskiego 12, 90-051 Lodz, Poland
Marcin Janusz: Department of Economic Policy, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Oczapowskiego 4, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland
Marek Piotrowski: Department of Economic Policy, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Oczapowskiego 4, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland
Karolina Krzykowska-Piotrowska: Faculty of Transport, Warsaw University of Technology, Koszykowa 75, 00-662 Warsaw, Poland
Ivano Dileo: Department of Economics, Law, Cybersecurity and Sports Sciences, University of Naples Parthenope, Via Guglielmo Pepe, 80035 Nola, NA, Italy

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 22, 1-18

Abstract: Robots are becoming an increasingly popular element of the developing technological reality. A companion (social) robot can be defined as an autonomous machine that recognises other robots and people and engages in social interactions. Robots of this type are designed to serve people, so they often act as guides, assistants, companions, guardians, teachers and domestic pets. This study aims to define and operationalise the components and synthetically measure the social awareness (index) concerning the usability of a companion robot in everyday life. A comprehensive new research tool was developed as part of the study in the form of an original standardised interview questionnaire by the CATI/CAWI technique. Empirical studies show that an increase in social acceptance requires that potential consumers be provided with the necessary information to know the technologies better and improve their digital skills related to social robots.

Keywords: social awareness index; disability; reduced mobility; companion robots; digital wellbeing; social sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/9744/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/9744/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:22:p:9744-:d:1516695

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().