Usability Requirements for User-Controlled Robotic Eating Aids

Abstract: The meal is fundamental in terms of nutrition but also from a social perspective. To be able to eat independently is described as important for the meal experience.  The development of a robotic eating aid called Bestic and the evolvement of a list of usability criteria for such an aid are described in this thesis. The work has been ongoing for 16 years. Bestic has been developed through user centred design, an iterative process with reoccurring evaluations and development. The design principle “it is not supposed just to work, but to be worth using” has guided the work. The feedback provided by the users throughout this process has had a great impact on the strategic choices of which features to prioritize during further development and what to keep as it is and has contributed to the list of usability requirements for robotic eating aids.  The context in which the robotic eating aid is used is of importance for the usability requirements. To further understand the environment that the robotic eating aid is used in, studies about the meal situation for older people in both Scandinavian/Swedish and Japanese contexts were conducted. The secondary users (care professionals or next of kin) were also taken into consideration when deriving the usability requirements and while performing the evaluations of the robotic eating aid.The most important research outcome from this work is a list of usability requirements for robotic eating aids. The requirements are divided into functional requirements and social requirements. The functional requirements for robotic eating aids include:·      how well they work to eat with·      how they are controlled·      safety aspects·      portability·      possibility to adapt to different users. The social requirements for robotic eating aids include:·      how to fit into the meal situation·      not to disturb the conversation·      the needs from secondary users.