# Expectation vs. Reality: Attitudes Towards a Socially Assistive Robot in Cardiac Rehabilitation
###### Abstract  
Currently, Social Assistive Robotics (SAR) is widely explored in different areas and scenarios. In cardiac rehabilitation, SAR has been recently implemented as a tool to improve the quality of the procedures and support patients to boost their performance. As cardiac rehabilitation comprises numerous sessions, such systems must guarantee to be effective in the long term. Therefore, to achieve this goal, it is important to understand how users, namely patients and clinicians who mostly know the needs and the therapy environment, perceive this technology. In this context, this paper presents the assessment of the attitudes towards a social robot in order to evaluate the expectation of potential new users, and perception of users who interacted with the social robot during a period of 18 weeks performing cardiac rehabilitation. A total of 43 participants (28 patients and 15 clinicians) were included in the study, and acceptance and perception factors were evaluated through a modified UTAUT questionnaire model and open discussion sessions. Results show that 75% of patients have positive thoughts regarding the usefulness, utility, safety, and trust perceived of a social robot, and 80% of clinicians consider that the robot is a useful tool for cardiac rehabilitation. Similarly, a more positive perception was noticed after the users interacted with the robot. Furthermore, this perception study allows the enhancement of the social model of interaction in the future, aiming to provide a more natural interaction trough personalized features, increasing social abilities and engagement of the users during the therapy. human-robot interaction; perception; social assistive robotics; robotic companion; UTAUT acceptance model; technology acceptance; cardiac rehabilitation +
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As SAR focuses on providing assistance through social interaction rather than physical interaction [15], as conventional robotics approaches do, these agents need to exhibit communicative and interactive skills that allow them to participate in human environments in a proper manner [16]. Therefore, to achieve that level of interaction, social robots require a set of technical features, such as: automated understanding of human behavior, quantitative diagnosis and assessment, sensor-based automated health data acquisition, and context-appropriate assistance that demand a high number of technological resources and complex developments [1]. Furthermore, as technology and robotic devices are exposed to technical failures, this situation can lead to slow response times, incorrect reactions, as well as low interactivity, which are factors that might be responsible of dropping the user's interest in the long-term interaction [8]. Based on this evidence, incorporating social agents into real in-clinic or in-home scenarios poses multiple challenges that researchers must overcome according to the user requirements and expectations. This paper seeks to evaluate perception and attitudes towards a socially assistive robot designed to support the outpatient phase of cardiac rehabilitation therapies. In this scenario, patients are continuously monitored by a social robot (i.e., physiological, spatiotemporal, and exercise intensity parameters are considered) while performing physical activity on a treadmill [6]. Additionally, the robot performs behaviors (e.g., speech and body gestures) that potentially result in motivation and encouragement, aiming to increase patient engagement during sessions. The assessment will be carried out considering two main stakeholders: patients (direct robot users) and clinicians. To achieve this goal, a user perception and acceptance questionnaire, which is based on the adapted version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and the Use of Technology (UTAUT) model [17] for social robots proposed in [18] was implemented in this work.