Robot carer

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a robotic assistant that can provide help for the elderly.

Not only can it dial the emergency services, it can remind clients to take their medication, help with grocery shopping and allow a person to talk to loved ones and carers.

Concerned family members can access the unit and ’visit’ their elderly parents from any internet connected PC. They can also navigate the robot around the home to looking for relatives who may not hear a phone ringing, or be in need of assistance. Doctors can also perform ’virtual’ house calls, reducing the need for travel.

’For the first time, robots are safe enough and inexpensive enough to do meaningful work in a residential environment,’ said computer scientist Rod Grupen, director of UMass Amherst’s Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics, who developed the robot with computer scientists Allen Hanson and Edward Riseman.

There is no mistaking the so-called uBot-5 for a person, but its design was inspired by human anatomy. An array of sensors acts as the robots eyes and ears, allowing it to recognise human activities, such as walking or sitting. It can also recognise an abnormal event, such as a fall, and notify a carer. The carer can then ask the client to speak, smile or raise both arms. If the person is unresponsive, the robot can then call the emergency services, alert family and apply a digital stethoscope to a patient, conveying information to an emergency medical technician who is en route.