  Feedback design is an important aspect of person-following robots for older
adults. This paper presents a user-centred design approach to ensure the design
is focused on the needs and preferences of the users. A sequence of user
studies with a total of 35 older adults (aged 62 years and older) was conducted
to explore their preferences regarding feedback parameters for a socially
assistive person-following robot. The preferred level of robot transparency and
the desired content for the feedback was first explored. This was followed by
an assessment of the preferred mode and timing of feedback. The chosen feedback
parameters were then implemented and evaluated in a final experiment to
evaluate the effectiveness of the design. Results revealed that older adults
preferred to receive only basic status information. They preferred voice
feedback overtone, and at a continuous rate to keep them constantly aware of
the state and actions of the robot. The outcome of the study is a further step
towards feedback design guidelines that could improve interaction quality for
person-following robots for older adults.
