Jenkins, S.

This paper is a discussion of some of the ethical issues relevant to the use of social robots to care for older people in their homes, drawing on qualitative data collected as part of the Acceptable robotiCs COMPanions for AgeiNg Years project. We consider some of the tensions that can be created between older people, their formal (professional) carers, and their informal carers (for example friends or relatives), when a care robot is introduced into the home of an older person.

This paper briefly describes the method of a qualitative study, which used focus groups to elicit the views of older people and formal and informal carers of older people on the ethical issues surrounding the introduction of social robots into the homes of older people. We then go on to sketch some of the tensions and conflicts that can arise between formal carers, informal carers, and older people when trying to negotiate the task of dividing care responsibilities, and describe how the introduction of robots may exacerbate, or ease, these tensions.