# Socially Assistive Robots in Smart Environments to Attend Elderly People--A Survey
## 3 The Use of SAR in AAL Ecosystems
### Temporal Duration of Deployments  
Table 2 summarizes some of the main characteristics of the studies presented in a set of papers identified in Figure 1 and published between 2009 and 2023. For some of these papers, the duration of the experiments was not clearly stated in the publication but was available from press releases or the websites of the companies or academic institutions involved. In these cases, the data are reported as significant but are not included in the table.  
Unfortunately, many of the deployments are of very short duration (a few days or even a few sessions). But there are significant exceptions. For example, [PERSON] et al. [15]'s article documents the tests carried out as part of the MoveCare project. The aim of the project is to develop and field test an ecosystem to support the independent living of the elderly at home by monitoring, assisting, and providing social, cognitive, and physical stimulation. In the experimental testing, 25 elders participated. The whole system was installed in the apartments of elders living alone and used for 10 weeks each. As aforementioned, the EnrichMe project evaluated the feasibility of long-term deployments [33; 76]. The EnrichMe ecosystem consists of a robot, a number of environmental and movement sensors, and a networked care software platform. It was tested in two settings: in two Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) laboratories (Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, in Italy, and Stichting Smart Homes in the Netherlands) and three elderly care housing facilities (Lace Housing Ltd LACE, in the United Kingdom, Osrodek Pomocy Spolecznej- PUMS, in Poland, and Aktios Licenced Elderly Care Units, AKTIOS, in Greece). During the first evaluation in Italy, which involved four elderly people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and six caregivers, a Kompaii 2 robot was used. For the rest of the evaluations, a TIAGo robot without arms was deployed. For the last evaluation, the ecosystem was tested in the elderly case housing facilities (i.e., LACE, PUMS, and AKTIOS). On each site, two robotic systems were deployed. A total of 11 participants (4 males and 7 females) participated in the testing. The testing duration for each participant ranged between 7 and 10 weeks. The ages of the participants range between 70 years old and 90 years old [77].  
From 15 November 2021 to 21 July 2022 (with a lockdown period due to COVID-19 from December 2021 to March 2022), the CLARA robot was deployed in the Vitalia Teatinos nursing home (Malaga, Spain) [78] (see Figure 6). Although the experimental validation focused more on the robot than on the AAL environment in which it is embedded, the idea is that the robot shares a representation of the environment with this ecosystem so that sensors deployed in the environment augment the robot's capabilities and the robot can update information about the environment through its ability to navigate autonomously. Nine residents, aged between 65 and 85, actively participated in the validation tests.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Study** & **Year** & **Implication** & **Number of Users** & **Duration** \\ \hline
[15] & 2023 & deploy at home, unattended & 25 & 10 weeks \\
[72] & 2023 & experiments at nursing institution & 10 & 2 days \\
[73] & 2022 & survey & 197 & \\
[45] & 2022 & capture data from bracelet & 2 & 47/114 days \\
[74] & 2021 & capture data from bracelet & 4 & 15 days \\
[66] & 2020 & deploy at home, unattended & 20 & 5 days \\
[75] & 2019 & survey & 188 & \\
[38] & 2017 & demonstration and survey & 18 & \\
[48] & 2016 & experiments at home & 1 & \\
[55] & 2015 & experiments in laboratory & 6 & 1 session \\
[37] & 2013 & experiments at senior citizen homes & 16 & 2 sessions \\
[49] & 2013 & focus group & 32 & 1 session \\
[56] & 2012 & capture data in a controlled environment & 20 (young) & 20 min \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Summary of studies in the topic TS = Ambient Assistive Living AND TS = Assistive Robot between 2009 and 2023 involving real users.