PADERO

From 11-12th February, the PADERO research network (Participatory Design in Robotics for Elderly Care in Germany and Japan) invites developers to join another German-Japanese hackathon to explore crucial questions of the development of care robots: How can care robots meet the actual needs of care takers and people in need of care? And how do care robots need to be programmed in order to help alleviate nursing shortage in Germany and Japan?

The organisers of the hackathon, Dr. Rainer Wieching, Felix Carros and their fellow researchers of the international PADERO initiative follow a novel and promising approach: 'Participatory Design in Robotics for Elderly Care'. The participatory design aims at bringing together all stakeholders in the design process to ensure the robot meets the needs of nurses and patients: software developers, design engineers, robotics researchers, customers such as care homes and their employees, residents and their relatives.

The approach helps to overcome former misconceptions in the programming of care robots. For several decades care robots could not gain a foothold in nursing homes, although every helping hand was urgently needed. The reason was simple though: The robots did not fulfill the actual needs of the people in need of care.

The participatory design approach will be applied in the virtual two-day hackathon by creating interdisciplinary teams and co-developing sessions with real practitioners.

The event language will be English.

If you are interested in participating, get in touch with PADERO by sending an email to Felix Carros: info@robotik-in-der-pflege.de

Read more about PADEROs research work:

New study: Neglect of care sector's needs prevented use of robots in nursing homes

How to design robot solutions for elderly care challenges: 8 lessons learned from a ten-week case study in a German care home