Information Security, Privacy, and Trust in Social Robotic Assistants for Older Adults

People with impaired physical and mental ability often find it challenging to negotiate crowded or unfamiliar environments, leading to a vicious cycle of deteriorating mobility and sociability. To address this issue the ACANTO project is developing a robotic assistant that allows its users to engage in therapeutic group social activities, building on work done in the DALi project. Key components of the ACANTO technology are social networking and group motion planning, both of which entail the sharing and broadcasting of information. Given that the system may also make use of medical records, it is clear that the issues of security, privacy, and trust are of supreme importance to ACANTO.