Differences in healthcare professionals' perceptions of robots' usefulness, challenges, cautions, ethical issues, and intermediary roles by the experience of robot use

This study aimed to determine differences in healthcare professionals' perceptions of robots' usefulness, challenges, cautions, ethical issues, and intermediary roles by the experience robot use. The questionnaire was distributed to 180 participants, and 151 responses (84% valid response rate) were analyzed, excluding participants who did not give consent or data with missing values. The participants were divided into two groups according to whether they had had the following experiences: 1) using a robot in their daily life, 2) seeing a robot being used while at work, or 3) using a robot while at work. Group comparisons were performed using Welch's t-test or Mann-Whitney U test, and $\mathbf{p} < 0.05$ was used as the significance level in all calculations. Factor 2 (Usefulness of robots) scores were significantly higher for participants who reported having used robots in their daily lives. Factor 4 (Inconveniences of using robots) was significantly higher for participants who reported having used robots while at work. However, no significant differences were found for Factor 1 (The role of the intermediaries); Factor 3 (Ethical issues of concern in robot use); and Factor 5 (Dangers of robots). Findings from this study that robots are useful but currently used robots need intermediary assistance and improvement.