This chapter reviews the critical societal issues that have motivated research into socially assistive robotics (SAR) (Sect. 73.2) and describes the reason why physical robots rather than virtual agents are essential to this effort (Sect. 73.3). It highlights the major research issues within this area (Sects. 73.4– 73.7), describes the primary application domains and populations where SAR research has shown an impact (Sects. 73.8–73.11), and closes with some of the ethical and safety issues that SAR research necessitates (Sect. 73.12).