  To address the global challenge of population aging, our goal is to enhance
successful aging through the introduction of robots capable of assisting in
daily physical activities and promoting light exercises, which would enhance
the cognitive and physical well-being of older adults. Previous studies have
shown that facial expressions can increase engagement when interacting with
robots. This study aims to investigate how older adults perceive and interact
with a robot capable of displaying facial emotions while performing a physical
exercise task together. We employed a collaborative robotic arm with a flat
panel screen to encourage physical exercise across three different facial
emotion conditions. We ran the experiment with older adults aged between 66 and
88. Our findings suggest that individuals perceive robots exhibiting facial
expressions as less competent than those without such expressions.
Additionally, the presence of facial expressions does not appear to
significantly impact participants' levels of engagement, unlike other
state-of-the-art studies. This observation is likely linked to our study's
emphasis on collaborative physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) applications,
as opposed to socially oriented pHRI applications. Additionally, we foresee a
requirement for more suitable non-verbal social behavior to effectively enhance
participants' engagement levels.
