Agile Co-Creation for Robots and Aging (ACCRA) Project

__Introduction__ Worldwide population is getting older. The older persons want to stay independent and wish to increase theirengagement in social activities to tackle loneliness, depression, and isolation. Starting from these assumptions, we developedthe ACCRA project (Agile Co-Creation for Robots and Aging) with the aim to enable the development of advanced ICTRobotics-based solutions for extending active and healthy aging in daily life by defining, developing and demonstrating anagile co-creation development process. __Methods__ ACCRA robotics solutions will be designed and developed to be tested in three different domains: mobility, dailylife, socialization support in four countries (i.e., France, Netherlands, Italy, and Japan). The proposed approach identifiesfour different phases: (1) needs analysis, (2) agile co-creation, (3) experimentation, and (4) sustainability analysis. Currently,the first two phases were almost completed. For the needs phase, we have used the following recruitment criteria: (1) formobility: age ≥ 60 years, the and presence of mobility issues assessed by Older Mobility Scale (EMS) with a score u003e 13; (2)for daily life: age ≥ 60 years, and the presence of difficulties engaging in housework assessed by Autonomie GerontologieGroupes Iso-Ressources (AGGIR) with a GIR score ≥ 4; (3) for socialization support: age ≥ 60 years, and the absence ormild level of cognitive impairment assessed by Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) with a score ≥ 24. __Results__ The needs analysis and first co-creation sessions focus attention on the experience of older in the four countries. Preliminaryresults showed how, in all the pilot sites, many expectations were raised from older, formal and informal caregiversabout the application of the technology into their life. Minor concerns existed about privacy, real efficacy and modularity ina real-world environment. Overall, a good attitude was recorded towards the use of technologies to support life and promoteindependent living. Moreover, the older engaged in our studies showed a great interest to be actively involved in the developingphase of something built based on their needs. __Conclusions__ The availability of new solutions to increase independence and quality of life in a sustainable manner appearsto be mandatory in the actual society considering the actual socio-economic situation over the industrial countries.