"The Way of the Times" Elderly Care Robots May Enter Ordinary People's Homes

The companion, kitchen and bathroom robots that have appeared on the screen have become increasingly mature. When they enter the homes of ordinary people, they will greatly improve people's quality of life. For the elderly who need more help, it will be a timely help. At that time, the elderly's meals, travel and medical care will be covered. Maybe "clothes come to hand and food comes to mouth" will no longer be a dream. Elderly care robots may enter our lives!

The public has long been looking forward to "smart elderly care"

The aging population has made elderly care robots a hot topic. At a time when children are too busy to take care of the elderly and social care workers are hard to trust, elderly care robots have come into being.

The feasibility of elderly care robots has been fully recognized by the official departments. On January 19, 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and 17 other departments jointly issued the "Robot+" Application Action Implementation Plan, which clearly stated that intelligent assistance should be provided in many aspects such as bathing, housework, emotional companionship, entertainment and security for the elderly. In other words, more elderly care robots will become the main body of caring for the elderly.

As early as 2018, a company in Shenzhen jointly established the "Smart Health Care Research Institute" with the China Association of Aging and Traditional Chinese Medicine Development. Through technological breakthroughs, they have brought a home smart robot for the elderly that can provide daily greetings, listen to operas, dance and other functions.

The government's advocacy and promotion, as well as the advancement of the commercialization of elderly care robots, indicate that elderly care robots have a bright future. So what will be the future development trend of elderly care robots, and what difficulties still need to be overcome?

Robot elderly care services must be “elderly-friendly”

At present, there are actually two development trends for elderly care robots: one is tangible equipment, and the other is intangible services. In either case, the goal is to provide assistance to the elderly.

First of all, when it comes to "invisible" services, the representative one is the "smart house" solution launched by major home furnishing companies. For the elderly, most of their daily needs can be solved through smart platforms. Whether it is sweeping the floor, boiling water or turning on the bathing system, you only need to say a word to make the smart devices work.

However, this kind of "invisibility" is actually flawed, that is, it can only provide proper household services for the elderly who are in good physical condition. For disabled or semi-disabled elderly people, "tangible" intelligent robots are more useful.

In order to meet this type of elderly care needs, relevant companies have increased their research and development efforts on rehabilitation robots and nursing robots.

Let’s talk about “tangible” services, such as “rehabilitation robots” and “nursing robots”.

Rehabilitation robots can help elderly people with limited mobility to carry out daily activities. Through assisted training and data recording, they can better provide doctors with relevant data, allowing doctors to develop more complete physical rehabilitation plans for them.

"Nursing robots" can complete most of the "nursing" work, assist the elderly in their daily living, and even meet the elderly's practical needs in terms of travel, turning over in bed, and eating.

It can be said that most electrical appliance and technology companies are increasing their R&D investment in elderly care robots. Driven by these leading companies, elderly care robots have taken shape. Currently, the R&D directions are basically three categories: rehabilitation, nursing, and companionship.

Although technology is advancing, there is still a long way to go before the popularization of elderly care robots is truly realized.

"Robot + Elderly Care" may become a future trend

It is a trend that intelligent nursing robots and home service robots enter the home to provide life assistance for the elderly. However, there are many reasons that hinder the popularization of elderly care robots, and the limitations can be roughly divided into two aspects: humanization and specialization.

First, in terms of humanization. Because the users are elderly people, designers and developers must make the communication and interaction between the machine and the user simpler. But even if the design is simpler, since the elderly care robot needs to provide a variety of services, it is difficult to reduce the number of functional voices that the elderly need to remember, which will inevitably increase the difficulty for the elderly to adapt to the robot.

Secondly, in terms of specialization, it is difficult to clearly distinguish between elderly care robots and medical care equipment in terms of function, because as the body functions of the elderly decline, robots will inevitably be required to take on the responsibility of "care".

In addition, in addition to nursing and medical use, the cost of using equipment to assist the elderly in recovering their body functions is also very high. At present, although major manufacturers have launched them, and even "professional rehabilitation centers" can be seen in big cities, the unit price of rehabilitation exoskeleton robots is still very high. In general, elderly care robots whose functions can truly meet the needs are still "high-tech". Although elderly care robots have very good development prospects, they cannot be fully popularized at present.

However, there is no need to worry that this situation will last too long. With my country's policy inclination towards the development of AI and support for the elderly, the functions, information processing and endurance of elderly care robots will surely be greatly improved. The development of materials science will also affect the material selection of elderly care robots.

As the cost of elderly care robots from built-in information processors to external manufacturing materials decreases, the overall price will inevitably drop. By then, intelligent elderly care robots will surely enter the homes of ordinary people and better help with elderly care and convenient life.