Human beings have come a long way since the discovery of the early humans roaming on Earth around two million years ago. Back then the average life expectancy was 35 years. Now with the aid of medical discovery, the education of a healthy lifestyle, and technological innovations the average life expectancy is 72.6 years. With the help of science and technology, humans now live longer than before, however, the idea of increasing the average human life expectancy means human population increases, which includes the elderly population. As we age, we tend to lose some of our abilities such as movement and memory as we may be diagnosed with Alzheimer, Dementia, arthritis, diabetes, and other medical conditions affected as we grow older. By then who can take care of us once we cannot take care of ourselves? Many of the older population do not like relying on their family members due to not wanting to be a burden or they do not want to move to an elderly home due to wanting to age at the comfort of their own home. Now with the increase of technology, many are looking towards robots to solve this solution. Robots can be programmed to be caregivers for older population as they can work around the clock, they can be programmed for specific tasks, and they can provide comfort and emotional support for the elders.

What it Takes to Take Care of an Older Person

The increase of the older population is becoming a world-wide problem with implications in housing, labor, health care, social protection, and much more. According to the United Nations website (2020), “Globally, the population aged 65 and over is growing faster than all other age groups. According to data from World Population Prospects: the 2019 Revision, by 2050, one in six people in the world will be over age 65…In 2018, for the first time in history, persons aged 65 or above out number children under five years of age globally” . The statistics shows the elderly population is expediently growing while the new generation are slowly growing which can lead to a greater call for caregivers now. Currently, there are a shortage of personal care workers, long term care facilities are either too expensive, do not have enough beds, or there is a long waitlist. It is no secret taking care of an aging loved one comes with a learning curve for both. We must learn their medications, perhaps their medical devices, be aware of their mental illness that we cannot physically see, and learn other factors along the way as we may not have thought of learning until we have to take care of an older person. This can lead to stress, burn out, and the overall feeling of overwhelmed. Therefore, many are turning their research to robot caregivers as they can perform the same mundane task repeatedly with a smile on their face without getting tired.

Robots Provide Emotional Support

Robot caregivers can provide additional assistance watching over an older person. Over the years, different research institutions and private companies have released their own version of a robot caregivers. A few of the popular ones are Zora, a 57cm (22 inch) humanoid robot that can dispense medicine, take blood pressure, exercise, and speak (Bots, 2016); ROBEAR a four feet looking medical bear assists with lifting and carrying a mobility impaired patient, help them stand or provide a support to lean on while walking (Starr, 2015); and there is Paro a small furry white seal providing emotional support (PARO Robots U.S., 2014). In the years of 2003-2004 a long-term experiment was conducted at a health service facility for the older people on their physiological and social affects with Paro (Wada, Shibata, Saito, Sakamoto, & Tanie, 2005). The outcome of the researched showed significant behavior improved from the older people after they interacted with Paro. Each participant was asked to choose how they felt by pointing to one of the 7 face scale of the modified Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) before interacting with Paro. A low number would indicate a satisfactory feeling while a high number indicates depressed. After having some interaction with Paro, the participant was then asked again how they felt by referencing the face scale again. Their response to the GDS and comments of nursing staff is how the researching team recorded the effect Paro had on the older people. An example of an increase of mood from this experiment was from an 89-year-old participant. The 89-year old participant’s face scale score was always lower after interaction. At one point the participant was hospitalized for 16 days. When she returned and met Paro after leaving the hospital she said to Paro, “I was lonely, Paro. I wanted to see you again” (Wada, Shibata, Saito, Sakamoto, & Tanie, pp 2799). The 89-year-old grew an emotional attachment to Paro and leaned on Paro for comfort when she needed it the most. Most of the participants in this research felt less lonely after interacting with Paro and some increased their social interaction with those around them. The researched showed a robot caregiver offers positive results.

A Case Study of Roboet Aiding the Odler Population

Although robot caregivers are a great option to reduce an older person’s depression, loneliness, and assist in their living, additional research has been conducted on what type of tasks older people may prefer a robot to take on oppose to a human. Jenay Beer, an Engineering psychologist at Georgia Tech, has stated in her 2012 TedTalk (Beer, 2012), “Robots can help older adults and older adults are willing to accept robots!” Beer was part of a team that conducted a study where subjects watched an 8-minute video showing a Georgia tech’s robot PR2’s capabilities. After watching the video, subjects were given a survey asking which task they feel comfortable or prefer a robot to do. The results showed for 28 of the 48 home tasks, older adults indicated a preference for robot assistance over human assistance. The conclusion of the study demonstrates robot caregivers is a great solution, however, robots should have customized behavior to display their great capabilities. Older adults tend to like things done a certain way such as meal prep a certain way or clean a certain way. Enabling a customize robot caregiver’s behavior to meet the older adult’s personal preference is a key feature that will allow older adults to be more open for robots to assist them more. In the study, older adults also noted they do not want to depend on the robot as much. They would like the robot to assist them on difficult task but not all of it. An example would the robot lifting a mattress while the older adults tucks in the bed sheets.

The Ethics of Robot Caregivers for the Elders

Robots as caregiver is a great invention to compact the increasing older adult population but there are a few ethics concern behind robot caregivers. Shannon Vallor, a philosophy professor at Santa Clara University, studies how our habits influence the development of our moral character. Vallor is questioning the motivation behind creating robot caregivers. She states:
“My question is what happens to us, what happens to our moral character and our virtues in a world where we increasingly have more and more opportunities to transfer our responsibilities for caring for others, to robots? And where the quality of those robots increasingly encourages us to feel more comfortable with doing this, to feel less guilty about it, to feel in fact maybe like that's the best way that we can care for our loved ones?” (Johnston, 2015)
Vallor implies the creation of these robot caregivers should not replace a human’s interaction caring for the older population just so we can feel less guilty or pass on the work. Vallor would like robot caregivers to assist or teach people how to communicate when taking care of the older population. Vallor’s views compliments Beer’s study on how older adults appreciate the robot to help rather than do all the tasks for them and how there can be a greater impact if robot caregivers are customizable to fit everyone’s personal behavior needs to satisfy how much assistance or where are assistance needed.

Conclusion

Robot caregivers can provide immense help in providing additional aid to older people depending on their desired assistance. Paro is a great emotional support robot whereas ROBEAR is great assisting movement and Zora is great for overall companionship and medical support. More and more companies are releasing their own version of a robot caregiver out to the public and they are used all over the world as the increase of older people population is becoming a global concern. Robots can be the key helping the older population not to feel depressed and help them take their medicine, but it should not replace the personal human interaction. We should not rely too heavily on robots to replace humans and solely have robots take care of the older adults. It is up to use to come up with a solution to engineer robots to accommodate our behavior of reaching out to our older adult and learn how to better assist them along with the robot caregiver.

References

Beer, J. (2012, May 21). TEDxGeorgeTech - Jenay Beer - Meet Your Grandparents' Assistance: The Domesticated Robot. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ppyWqFdc1Q&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Bots, Z. (2016, April 12). Zora, The First Social Robot Already Widely Used in Healthcare. Retrieved from Robotics Tomorrow: https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/article/2016/04/zora-the-first-social-robot-already-widely-used-in-healthcare/7927

Johnston, A. (2015, August 17). Robotics seals comfort dementia patients but raise ethical concerns. Retrieved from kalw: https://www.kalw.org/post/robotic-seals-comfort-dementia-patients-raise-ethical-concerns#stream/0

Nations, U. (2020, December 18). Ageing. Retrieved from United Nations: https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/ageing/#:~:text=Globally%2C%20the%20population%20aged%2065,11%20in%202019%20(9%25)

PARO Robots U.S., I. (2014). Paro Therapeutic Robot. Retrieved from PARO: http://www.parorobots.com/

Starr, M. (2015, February 25). Giant robotic teddy bear: Japan's nurse of the future. Retrieved from cnet: https://www.cnet.com/news/giant-robotic-teddy-bear-japans-nurse-of-the-future/

Wada, K., Shibata, T., Saito, T., Sakamoto, K., & Tanie, K. (2005). Psychological and Social Effects of One Year Robot Assisted Activity on Elderly People at a Health Service Facility for the Aged. IEEE, 2796-2801.