When Robots Feel Like Companions: Designing Trust and Agency with Older Adults

Chorong Park

Assistant Professor, University of Houston

Location: Stanford Robotics Center, Packard Electrical Engineering Bldg, Basement

Time: Monday, October 12th, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Abstract:

A robot can feel like a trusted companion before its user understands what it senses, remembers, or shares. What does this mean for robots entering older adults’ everyday lives?

This talk examines how embodiment and emotional connection shape trust, privacy, and autonomy in interactions with companion robots. Drawing on community-based fieldwork, participatory design, and recent studies with older adults, I explore how expressive movement, pet-like behavior, and interaction timing influence interpretations of robot capabilities and failures. Encounters with robotic companions and voice assistants reveal how affection and skepticism can coexist, and how seemingly reassuring behaviors can make sensing and data practices less noticeable.

Recent work on changing privacy boundaries further shows why consent must remain negotiable throughout an interaction. I translate these findings into design questions about visible sensing, response timing, recovery from misunderstandings, and the ability to pause or redirect assistance. These questions connect older adults’ lived experiences to concrete choices in robot behavior and interface design.

Together, these studies provide an empirical foundation for evaluating robots in community and care settings: how people understand their behavior, how relationships develop, and whether users retain meaningful control as assistance becomes more personal.

Speaker Bio:

Chorong Park, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and Presidential Frontier Faculty member at the University of Houston, where she directs the Empathetic Lifespan AI & Robotics for Aging (ELARA) Lab. Her research connects human–robot interaction, human–computer interaction, and gerontology to develop technologies that support older adults’ autonomy and emotional well-being.

Her approach combines participatory design, Kansei engineering, and qualitative field research, informed by more than 500 hours of community technology support with older adults and people with disabilities. Her recent publications examine trust cues in companion robots, the relationship between affection and disclosure, and older adults’ changing privacy boundaries. Her coauthored CHI 2026 paper, “Privacy is Not One-Click,” received an Honorable Mention award.

Park earned her Ph.D. in Technology, with a minor in Gerontology, and her M.S. in UX Design from Purdue University.