Robin the robot helps take care of 94 year old Italian Grandma Lea
6 May 2014 01:38 PM
At
94, Grandma Lea could not live alone anymore but wanted to stay at home. In our
ageing society, many elderly people are in the same situation. Robotics offers
a safe and affordable solution. An EU-funded team,@giraffplus has developed the GiraffPlus system; a
robot assists older people in their homes, connects them to family, friends and
healthcare professionals, while wearable devices and sensors throughout the
home keep an eye on the person's health and activities. The system should
be in commercial production by the end of 2015. The EU market for robots and
devices assisting our older people is estimated to reach €13 billion by
2016.
"People ask why I don’t just live with my
daughter, but she has grandchildren of her own and many new responsibilities.
With this valuable assistant that I call ‘Mr Robin’ I'm more
relaxed about the years ahead, and so are my children and
grandchildren", explains 94-year-old Lea Mina Ralli, also known as
Grandma – 'nonna' in Italian – Lea. She has been using the
GiraffPlus system for 5 months and often writes about 'Mr Robin'
on her
blog (in Italian).
€3 million of EU funding was invested in GiraffPlus
to test how robots and other devices could help older people live safer, more
independent lives. The system includes sensors and a robot. The sensors are
designed to detect activities like cooking, sleeping or watching television and
monitor health – blood pressure or sugar levels for example. They allow
the person’s carers to monitor their wellbeing remotely and to check for
falls. A robot moves around the home and allows family, friends and carers to
virtually visit the person.
Silver generation and economy
Vice-President of the European Commission @NeelieKroesEU, responsible for the Digital
Agenda, says: "None of us is getting any younger. But we all want
to know that we will not lose our dignity, respect and independence as we age.
The EU is investing in new technology that can support the silver generation
– adding not just years to our life, but also life to our
years!"
Europe’s over-65s have a disposable income of over
€3,000 billion and much of this will be ploughed back into the caring
economy. According to Stephen Von Rump, CEO of Giraff Technologies AB, the EU
market for robots and other devices assisting of our elderly will reach
€13 billion by 2016.
"GiraffPlus will be in 15 homes by the end of
2014", says Amy Loutfi, the project coordinator based at Örebro
University, Sweden. "So far we have had six homes in Europe –
two homes each in Spain, Sweden and Italy – that have lived with the
GiraffPlus system. We currently are in the middle of the evaluations, but we
see that various aspects of the system are appreciated differently by the
different users. This goes to show that a one-size fits all approach to
technology at home is not necessarily the best, and technology should be both
adaptable and tailored to user's needs".
Current plans are to put the system into commercial
production next year, based on an upfront fee and monthly subscriptions which
would make it competitive when set alongside increasingly expensive full-time
care.
The GiraffPlus
consortium includes public and private partners from Italy, Portugal,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and UK.
Video on EBS (including international
version)
Background
The
European Commission strongly supports independent living through the use of new
technologies – including robotics – as part of the Digital
Agenda strategy @DigitalAgendaEU. On top of the new research and
innovation programme Horizon 2020 #H2020, two important initiatives are dedicated to
taking new technologies to the market and homes and to embedding them in our
systems for health and social care.
The Active Assisted Living Joint Programme (@AAL_JP) is an
initiative driven by the EU's member states for applied research on ICT
products and services for ageing well. Over a hundred projects have been funded
since 2008 and it should be continued under H2020: €25 million of EU
funding is foreseen in 2014 and the same amount again in 2015.
The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy
Ageing (@EIP_AHA) is a multi-stakeholder partnership to implement innovative
ICT-driven technologies for active and healthy ageing at European scale and to
remove barriers that prevent their deployment. One of its six Action Groups
focuses on independent living, while others deal with related topics like the
prevention and early detection of falls and age-friendly communities and
environments.
Read more about Standards for caring robots and The ethics of
robotics.
Funding available under Horizon 2020
Through Horizon
2020 #H2020, many more projects on independent living,
including robotics, will be funded. One of the focus areas of Societal Challenge 1 –
Health, demographic change and wellbeing is "personalising health
and care" (PHC). It notably supports citizen empowerment through
self-management of health and disease, health promotion and disease
prevention.
The
PHC calls have a total budget of €549.3 million for 2014 and €537
million for 2015. Two specific challenges are specifically devoted to robotics
(PHC
10-2014 and PHC 19-2014) and
two other are dedicated to ICT solutions for independent living (PHC
20-2014 – PHC
21-2015).
Read more about EU support to ageing well with
ICT.
Read more about EU
support to robotics - @RoboticsEU and find information on
the public-private partnership in robotics between the European
Commission and the robotics academia and industry to boost research and
innovation in this strategic field and on the funding opportunities for
2014-2015 (ICT-23-2014 and ICT-24-2015 to be published on 15 October 2014
TBC).
Contacts
Email: comm-kroes@ec.europa.eu Tel: +32.229.57361
Twitter: @RyanHeathEU