An Exploratory Literature Review of Robots and Their Interaction as Assistive Technology for Persons with Disabilities: Focus on Promoting Activity and Participation

According to the United Nations, approximately 15% of the world's population has some form of disability. Although the development of service robots to support those people with disabilities is increasing, there has not been enough comprehensive discussion on the research and effectiveness of robots as assistive technology for people with disabilities. This study conducted an exploratory literature review to determine the current status of previous research on robots to assist people with disabilities and to provide a basis for research on robots to assist people with disabilities. A literature review was conducted using PubMed as the database to identify current research trends. The search was conducted on August 1, 2021, using the keywords "disabled" and "robotics" and 49 articles were identified. After an in-depth screening process, 43 studies were deemed eligible for further analysis. As a result, the previous studies covered a variety of robot applications, including robot-assisted gait training, robot-assisted play activities, and robot-assisted task-oriented upper limb skills training. Physical disabilities accounted for the majority of the disability types in the previous study (81.4%), of which 94.3% were targeted for movement disorders. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that research on robots for the disabled mainly targets movement disorders such as limb inconvenience caused by physical disabilities. Regarding the purpose of using robots to overcome these motor impairments, most of the research was on support and training for upper and lower limb movements. Effects on participation or activity were found in 54.5% of the articles dealing with movement disorders. It was suggested that robots can support activity and participation for movement disorders of people with disabilities and have some effectiveness. On the other hand, 11.6% of the previous studies dealingwith cognitive aspects of disability were less common than those dealing with motor aspects. In conclusion, robots hold great promise in improving the quality of life of people with disabilities, especially in promoting activity and participation.