By 2020, we would
like to see robotic assistants in many older peoples' homes and
apartments in retirement villages and in the community, around the
world, helping people by doing simple tasks and providing, empowering,
and enriching interactions including connections to their friends,
family, and caretakers who are in other places. We think there are a
number of roles for robots in older care, including a robot as a care
assistant that does simple tasks to help staff, and a companion robot
that provides entertainment, interactions, and connections to friends
and family using its touch screen and its connection to the Internet.
For all this we need a very well designed and simple interface that many
people can use. In our trials, people have told us that they would like Internet technology delivered via the robot, because it is easier to
use than a computer. Our goal is to put robots all around the world and
the New Zealand government funding that supports our work is aimed at
the export market for New Zealand companies.
What are the main obstacles that need to be overcome between now and the implementation goal?
We need to have robots interacting with a
lot of people, and then improve what the robots do according to
peoples' feedback. We need to find ways to get robots in peoples' homes
on a wide scale, across our communities; that includes support for
helping people use the robots. Currently there is little business
infrastructure for selling and supporting robots across large markets
around the world, and people are not used to having robots around. We
have shown that people will accept robots in older care, and that the
robots can work in an elderly care environment. We are hoping our
current studies will verify that robots improve the life experience of
older people and their care staff. The next step is to deploy robots in
many places. Also, we need to narrow the focus to some simple initial
applications for the robots; so far we have many things that the robots
can do.
What types of
conditions in people are the Healthbots most suited to helping? For
example, hypertension/CVD, diabetes, Alzheimer's, etc?
I think robots can help people with all
kinds of conditions, by helping them manage the condition, and by
enriching peoples' lives with more interesting activities and
interactions when the condition imposes limitations on what people can
do by themselves. The medication management system on the robots is also
important. Many older people are taking several medications several
times a day and it can be a challenge to remember all the medications,
the times they should be taken, and any limitations about each
medications (e.g. with or without food or water). Some medications
should be taken only if the older person has certain symptoms at the
time. The robot system can remind people to take medications at the
right time, and in the right way, and it can ask them about their
symptoms and then remind them what to take as a result. Also, the doctor
seems to like receiving a weekly summary on a Web page of the
medications taken, the vitals signs taken every time the medications are
taken (e.g. blood pressure and heart rate), and some answer to a few
symptom questions that the doctor can tell the robot to ask. So we think
this can help people with any conditions that are managed by
medications, and that includes many conditions, including
hypertension/CVD (something we are working on with Pulsecor, whose device measures arterial stiffness as well as blood pressure),
diabetes (the robot can also collect blood glucose results), and
respiratory problems that require inhaler use (something we are working
on with Nexus6, which makes devices to monitor inhaler use). We
also think that the robot can help people with Alzheimer's, however we
are still evaluating how these people interact with robots like ours.
