  This study provides user-studies aimed at exploring factors influencing the
interaction between older adults and a robotic table setting assistant. The
in-fluence of the level of automation (LOA) and level of transparency (LOT) on
the quality of the interaction was considered. Results revealed that the
interaction effect of LOA and LOT significantly influenced the interaction. A
lower LOA which required the user to control some of the actions of the robot
influenced the older adults to participate more in the interaction when the LOT
was low com-pared to situations with higher LOT (more information) and higher
LOA (more robot autonomy). Even though the higher LOA influenced more fluency
in the interaction, the lower LOA encouraged a more collaborative form of
interaction which is a priority in the design of robotic aids for older adult
users. The results provide some insights into shared control designs which
accommodates the preferences of the older adult users as they interact with
robotic aids such as the table setting robot used in this study.
