Economic: Highly performing assistive robots can mean that they can replace people in the healthcare workforce, creating financial challenges for them. Furthermore, robotic technology is often expensive to make, resulting in a high price range for consumers. This can create challenges for homes and healthcare locations with lower financial means that cannot purchase expensive assistive robots. On the other hand, assistive robots can help locations with labor shortages be more efficient and cost-friendly in the long run (assuming the robot lasts several years).
Society: Assistive robots can enhance quality of life for older persons and those with physical limitations. They can reduce their burden with daily tasks and give them greater independence. Additionally, assistive robotics, when used in collaboration with healthcare professionals, can streamline their care-taking practices and improve their stress and well-being, as they are often overworked and overwhelmed. On the other hand, assistive robots can take away user autonomy and cause feelings of not being in control of tasks that matter to them. Reduced human-to-human interaction from robotic help has implications on feelings of isolation. This is why we have been particularly exploring user-in-the-loop robot autonomy in our own capstone design to ensure that the user and potentially caretakers are involved in the robot's function to some extent. Lastly, privacy concerns arise from things like video and audio recording of robots. Before deploying them, we need to ensure that users, particularly vulnerable ones, are well informed of data collection practices and what is being done to ensure their privacy in order to foster trust and acceptance of assistive robots.
Environment: The creation of technology, especially hardware and software intensive technology like assistive robots, undergo several environmental implications. They can contribute to electronic and energy usage and waste. Materials that are extracted from the Earth can strain resources and negatively impact wildlife, particularly in underprivileged locations. On a positive note, if robots are used in lieu of human healthcare assistance, that can reduce the carbon emissions that would originally be emitted from the human's commute to the patient.