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As robots enter hospitals and care facilities, questions remain about whether they actually make care easier for the people who give and receive it. A new Cornell Tech-led study approaches that challenge by inviting healthcare workers, long-term care residents, and community members to help design the robots themselves.
Presented at the 2026 Association for Computing Machinery CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the research documents a 14‑week “co-design” project in which nurses, doctors, nursing center residents, artists, engineers, computer scientists, and craftsmen worked side by side to imagine and physically build robots that could ease daily burdens in healthcare settings.
Rather than starting with technical capabilities, the team began by examining what frustrates healthcare workers, what confuses or stresses patients, and where a robot might realistically help.
“Many healthcare facilities experience challenges managing and caring for patients, yet limited research explores the common issues faced by healthcare workers and patients, and how robot design could help,” said the paper’s co-author Angelique Taylor, the Andrew H. and Ann R. Tisch Assistant Professor at Cornell Tech and a faculty fellow in the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures.
Photo credit: NBBJ Photography.