Birgitte Halle, City of Aarhus, DK
Michelle Nielsen, City of Aarhus, DK

Because of the demographic challenge, the municipalities in Denmark have to think in new directions to keep the welfare of today. The number of elderly is rising, the average age is rising, the amount of elderly with dementia is rising, and at the same time we have less young ones, who can help. Is it possible to change this development with assisted living technology? This is, what Center for Assisted Living Technology in the Municipality of Aarhus is working with. There is quite a lot research in this area, but researching is a long term process, and we need a development of solutions now. Center for Assisted Living Technology has therefore started projects to test different types of robots and technologies in a practice near context, where both qualitative and quantitative data will be evaluated for future use for the implementation in the municipality. Our projects/tests consist of two steps, first a small test and then a bigger one. Our work focuses on citizens, who constantly are in development and is not a homogenous target group. During the test we get knowledge of the possibilities of the robot, and we learn which groups the robot best is suitable for. We also examine which competences the employees need for using the robot. The frame contents and conditions are changing during the test – therefore we adjust the test constantly in an iterative process. After the first test, we are using the results and experience for doing a more concrete evaluation in a setup, where the experience can be validated.