The number of elderly people aged 60 and over in China has exceeded 240 million. As the population ages, the pressure on old-age care continues to increase, and the ageing service robots are also emerging. However, is the old-age service robot really reliable? How many people will be willing to go through the last journey of life with the robot?
Aged service robot attracts attention
According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as of the end of 2017, the number of elderly people over the age of 60 reached 240 million, accounting for 17.3% of the total population. On average, nearly 4 laborers support for an elderly person.
There is a market for demand, and at the moment when the pressure on young people is increasing, the robots that help the elderly live as the times require.
On August 15th, at the 2018 World Robotics Congress, more than 160 leading Chinese and foreign robots brought the leading products to the collective appearance, allowing the audience to directly feel the technology to change their lives.
At the booth of a old-age service robot, I saw a humanoid robot walking around the scene.
It is understood that the current main positioning of this robot is the aged care service, including mobile assist, health cleaning, mobility assistance, chat reminder, security protection, bath cleaning, sleep aid, health check, 7 major items, more than 30 small items, is suitable for Service robots used in elderly homes and nursing homes.
The industry believes that in the future, robots will play a major role in helping the elderly and helping the disabled. It is crucial for the robot industry to propose solutions for China's future pension.
Endowment robot application ability to be improved
Although the old-age service robot has a prototype and a broad prospect, from the practical application situation, the use of the old-age service robot seems to have more room for improvement.
According to media reports, the Hangzhou Social Welfare Center introduced a number of smart old-age robots in 2016, called “A-Tie”. Their mission is to monitor indulgent patients, chat with the elderly, prompt them to take medicine on time, and make video calls to the elderly family members, and so on.
“In the later stages of use, we found that this robot is not very close to our workflow,” the staff member said.
The media has uploaded a video in which the old man said with a slight accent: "Atie, I like you very much!", but the answer of "Atie" is: "Master, please speak Chinese."
Industry experts said that at present, many domestic service robot products are not highly autonomy, and the technical content should be further strengthened. The accuracy and speed of speech recognition technology should be improved.
Spend the last journey of life with the robot, what do you think of it?
At present, for a true old-age service robot, many people are expecting and skeptical.
If it is you, would you choose to spend the last journey of life with the robot? Or would you choose a robot to accompany an elderly person at home?
