Robot companies cannot miss the 13 trillion elderly care market!

According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the number of people aged 60 and above in China will exceed 300 million. At the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, China will enter a moderately aging society. At the same time, the aging of China's population is characterized by large scale, rapid speed, and obvious aging trend. Solving the problem of elderly care is urgent. In this regard, we may be able to find the right direction and answer from the perspective of robots + elderly care.

The Elderly Care Expo held in Shanghai recently brought together 403 brand companies from 12 countries and regions, and the various elderly care robots on display were an eye-opener.

For example, UBTECH Robotics demonstrated multiple smart life scenarios such as smart bathrooms, smart bedrooms, and health check-ups, and introduced robot products such as companion robots and assisted walking robots. The smart health care cloud platform it launched can also monitor the safety and health signs of the elderly in real time.

As the first feeding robot launched by the technology company at the Shanghai Old Age Expo, it also exhibited a series of intelligent care products such as intelligent urination and defecation care robots, portable bathing machines, intelligent walking robots, multi-functional transfer machines, folding electric scooters, and electric stair climbing machines.

The smart ceiling rail system launched by Maidong Medical can be used for nursing and rehabilitation in hospitals or nursing homes. The smart ceiling rail can meet the patient's needs for shifting, turning over, walking training, etc. by laying smart tracks on the ceiling and matching them with slings. The equipment has been used in many community health service centers in Shanghai.

In the digital age, smart elderly care has been elevated to a national development strategy, and smart health care products have become a future development trend. Elderly care robots, as an important part of smart elderly care, cover the three levels of physiological, safety and spiritual needs of the elderly, and penetrate into most scenarios such as rehabilitation medicine, life assistance, health monitoring, emotional companionship, etc., and will have great potential in the future.

What kind of robots are needed for elderly care?

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and 17 other departments issued the "Robot+" Application Action Implementation Plan, pointing out that elderly care services have become a key area for robot applications. It is necessary to develop robot products that assist the elderly and the disabled, such as disability assistance, bathing assistance, defecation and urination care, rehabilitation training, housework, emotional care, entertainment and leisure, and security monitoring, and actively promote the application and verification of exoskeleton robots, elderly care robots, etc. in elderly care service scenarios.

At present, based on the functions of robots and the needs of the elderly, robot elderly care is mainly concentrated in three aspects: nursing, rehabilitation and companionship, which correspond to the three categories of nursing robots, rehabilitation robots and companion robots.

Nursing robots integrate applications such as safe care, active reminders, danger warnings, daily patrols, social care, and health management. They are mainly developed for disabled elderly people. According to the internationally accepted daily living activities ability scale: "eating, dressing, getting in and out of bed, going to the toilet, walking indoors and bathing" six indicators, the original intention of the nursing robot was to help the elderly complete these actions.

After entering the old age, the body's various bodily functions weaken, and it is not easy to complete simple movements. If you are not careful, you may even fall and get injured. According to a report from the World Health Organization, more than 300,000 people die from falls every year worldwide, most of whom are people over 65 years old. Data from China's disease monitoring system also shows that 40 million elderly people in my country fall at least once a year, and 8 out of every 10,000 people die prematurely due to falls. 40%-70% of the elderly need medical treatment because of falls, so it is best to have someone to assist them.

Previously, data released by the Department of Aging and Health of the National Health Commission showed that in 2021, the number of disabled and demented people in my country alone was about 45 million. To care for these disabled elderly people, based on the internationally accepted standard of 3:1, 15 million caregivers would be needed. Even if the ratio is relaxed, the number of caregivers required would be in the tens of millions. The current number of nursing staff for the elderly is far from enough. If nursing robots can be used, one caregiver can take care of more elderly people, which will alleviate the current shortage of staff.

Rehabilitation robots include exoskeleton robots and daily rehabilitation robots, which are mainly used for the daily living and health care rehabilitation of the elderly. From the functional point of view, they can be divided into auxiliary and therapeutic types. Among them, auxiliary rehabilitation robots are mainly used to help patients, the elderly, and the disabled better adapt to daily life and work, and partially compensate for their weakened functions, while therapeutic rehabilitation robots are mainly used to restore some of the patient's functions.

The elderly population is susceptible to various diseases, such as osteoporosis, paralysis, stroke, etc. With the increase in the elderly population, the treatment and rehabilitation of elderly patients has become increasingly prominent. Data show that in 2021, there were about 190 million elderly people in my country suffering from chronic diseases, and the demand for rehabilitation treatment is very urgent.

In contrast, there is a shortage of rehabilitation talents. Li Jianjun, director of the Chinese Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences, once said that the current shortage of rehabilitation talents is systematic. There is a gap in all kinds of rehabilitation professionals, especially rehabilitation therapy talents. In developed countries, there are an average of 70 rehabilitation therapists per 100,000 people, while in my country there are only 0.4.

It is difficult to train professional rehabilitation talents, and the use of rehabilitation robots to assist has become the best alternative. Judging from the current clinical results, rehabilitation robots can comprehensively reduce the workload of rehabilitation therapists and improve treatment efficiency and accuracy. Relying on a series of intelligent technologies, rehabilitation robots can also promote patients' active participation, objectively evaluate the intensity, time and effect of rehabilitation training, and make rehabilitation treatment more systematic and standardized.

Elderly care companion robots are a type of service robots . They mainly communicate through voice, with artificial intelligence and voice semantic interaction as their technical basis, and play the role of life companionship, action assistance, basic diagnosis and treatment, and spiritual comfort.

Nowadays, most people born in the 1980s and 1990s are only children. They are so busy with their lives that they can hardly find time to accompany their parents. As a result, the elderly group can easily fall into loneliness. If they don’t have a partner, they may even lose their passion for life. At this time, an effective companion robot is very necessary.

The elderly care market will reach 13 trillion yuan in 2030

Elderly care robots may be the most likely track to develop in the future. It is a very simple truth that to have a high-end industry, there must first be high-end demand and sufficient consumption capacity for high-end products. The most critical factor that can support the development of new technology companies is that consumers have money. Therefore, we can see that various advanced products are most easily promoted in developed countries.

Elderly care robots are just such high-end industries with sufficient demand and consumption capacity. Currently, my country's wealth is mainly in the hands of people born between the 1960s and 1980s. This generation is now over 50 years old on average and will enter old age in another ten years. Their bodies will decline and diseases will be more frequent, and the demand for care will increase dramatically. The demand for various elderly care robots will also grow rapidly.

In addition, this generation grew up in the period of reform and opening up, and has a strong ability to accept new things. They are willing to try any product that can improve the happiness of their elderly lives. They have money, needs and are willing to spend money, which is the perfect soil for the development of the elderly care robot industry.

The "White Paper on China's Elderly Care Industry" released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicts that by 2030, the scale of my country's elderly care industry will reach 13 trillion yuan. It is believed that elderly care robots will have a place in this.