*Review* **Socially Assistive Robots for Older Adults and People with Autism: An Overview**

#### **Ester Martinez-Martin \*, Felix Escalona and Miguel Cazorla**

Laboratory of Robotica and Vision Tridimensional (RoViT), University of Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig (Alicante), Spain; felix.escalona@ua.es (F.E.); miguel.cazorla@ua.es (M.C.)

**\*** Correspondence: ester@ua.es; Tel.: +34-965903400

Received: 16 January 2020; Accepted: 17 February 2020; Published: 21 February 2020

**Abstract:** Over one billion people in the world suffer from some form of disability. Nevertheless, according to the World Health Organization, people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to deficiencies in services, such as health care, rehabilitation, support, and assistance. In this sense, recent technological developments can mitigate these deficiencies, offering less-expensive assistive systems to meet users' needs. This paper reviews and summarizes the research efforts toward the development of these kinds of systems, focusing on two social groups: older adults and children with autism.

**Keywords:** robotics; healthcare; disability; assistive technology; socially assistive robotics
