title: AAL robotics: state of the field and challenges.
abstract: The field of "AAL Robotics", combining AAL and robotics as disciplines, has not yet been precisely defined and does not present accepted structures and concepts that would allow to communicate unequivocally its methods, projects, and approaches. The paper presents a method of defining and categorizing AAL robots and presents the resulting classes of robots with regard to the activities they assist. The classification is useful in that it is able to cover the breadth of the field, but a more fine-grained description of functionalities will be needed in further research to establish the potential of robots to assist independent living of older adults.
authors.affiliation: Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence OFAI, Vienna.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Payr
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Assisted Living Technologies RALTEC, Vienna.
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Assisted Living Technologies RALTEC, Vienna.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Werner
mesh_terms: D040561:Assisted Living Facilities / Q000639:trends*; D001317:Austria; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D012371:Robotics / Q000639:trends*; D012656:Self-Help Devices / Q000639:trends*; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000639:trends*