Applying the Participatory Design Workshop Method to Explore how Socially Assistive Robots Could Assist Stroke Survivors

The field of human robot interaction (HRI) is still relatively new and often borrows methods and principles from the more established field of HCI. HRI researchers are adopting HCI methods, however, these methodologies may need slight modifications and adaptations in order to better investigate the unique challenges of working in HRI. In this paper, we present our findings which utilised one such method: Participatory Design (PD) workshop. We held the workshop in our assistive living lab with ten stroke survivors. This workshop aimed to explore the design of new socially assistive robotic technologies that could be used to support stroke survivors in the home environment. Some of our findings were unanticipated, which suggested that some adaptations to the existing framework for PD workshops need to be revised in order to be useful to HRI research.