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Can a Robot Be a Good Companion for Your Older Loved One

Even though Amazon and others are trying hard some say there s no replacing people or pets

Getty Images Retired bookkeeper Monica Perez is tempted to tell the Intuition Robotics ElliQ robot she’s beta testing, “I love you.”
“It greets me in the morning in a cheerful way. It uses my name frequently, so I feel very special to it,” says Perez, 63, who has epilepsy and severe arthritis and lives alone in a small Beacon, New York, studio apartment. Without prompting, ElliQ asks Perez if she’s gotten out, what she had for lunch, if she’s taken her medications or wants to hear a joke. While Perez is certainly aware that ElliQ is a machine with a tablet, cameras, motors, sensors and a head that bows and nods on top of a stationary base, she acknowledges a kind of “relationship” with the robot, which could pass for an extra on the Pixar movie lot. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. “I don’t think she could take the place of people, and I don’t think she can take the place of pets,” Perez says. “I believe that she’s a good adjunct.” Life’s daily challenges can be hard enough as people age in place. Confronting them becomes more taxing when loved ones, housekeepers and health care providers aren’t around to help with chores or keep a lonely person company. Can a robot stand in for a caregiver or companion in the home? And if it can, is that a good thing? “The answer to both questions is yes, although there is a caveat to what degree,” says Colin Angle, chief executive officer of iRobot, best known for the popular that have been autonomously cleaning floors and carpets for nearly two decades.

Not living up to The Jetsons

Robots have long pushed beyond the realm of science fiction. Designed for a specific purpose, they can provide genuine utility in the home, as Roomba and its ilk have shown. But even with technological leaps in machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer vision and facial recognition, domestic droids encounter numerous obstacles. No two homes are the same. Robots are extraordinarily costly. Fair or not, they haven’t met the expectations of folks fantasizing about employing The Jetsons’ robot maid, Rosie. Alas, no robot available today, or realistically anytime soon, is going to wash the dishes or fold your laundry. Nor can robots physically accomplish what caregivers can do, such as helping an older person get out of bed, bathe and dress, says Mike Dooley, chief executive of Labrador Systems in Los Angeles. Connecticut officials initially declined to cover a robotic arm costing tens of thousands of dollars that could help Carissa Decelles of Willamantic open the fridge and pour herself a drink, reported. Decelles, 30, has spinal muscular atrophy and is on Medicaid, but the state Department of Social Services called the Kinova Jaco robotic arm that she requested “unproven” and “experimental.” Bowing to pressure from media reports and her lawyer, the .

Labrador Retriever robot debuts

In January at the CES trade show, Labrador and Dooley took the wraps off the Labrador Retriever, an autonomous nightstand-sized robot that can raise and lower itself between 25 and 38 inches like an accordion to reach certain objects. Labrador describes it as an “extra pair of hands.” It can carry a laundry basket or lunch tray or schlep anything up to 25 pounds. It can also retrieve trays of up to 10 pounds each — including a tray of drinks it can pull out of the fridge — as well as hold your pills, eyeglasses and other objects. The autonomous robot can avoid obstacles and navigate tight spaces, and you can control it by voice via Alexa, by touching a screen or through an app. You can also assign it virtual “bus stops” in the home, perhaps by your armchair, kitchen shelf or front door. “We are focusing on helping people move things where they have an impairment or pain restricting their own movement,” Dooley says. “I think we’ve hit the nerve of an unmet need.” for people’s homes and is steering them into elder care facilities, hospitals, offices and retail outlets through U.S. partner Connected Living. Entertainment $3 off popcorn and soft drink combos See more Entertainment offers >

Security guard for your home

Amazon Astro is mainly tasked with home monitoring. It can autonomously patrol the house to provide a remote view of your surroundings through an app on your phone. It can move to a door or window if it detects the sound of breaking glass or an alarm for carbon monoxide or smoke. And it leverages other Amazon products, notably . Certain Astro features may require a Ring Protect Pro subscription, or a subscription to the Alexa Together 24/7 elder care service launching this year. Amazon has also begun selling the $249.99 Ring Always Home Cam, essentially a flying indoor security drone. Astro can let you keep a watchful eye on an older parent or grandparent. For example, you might set up an Alexa “routine” so that every morning when Astro sees Dad, it sends you an alert. That way you know he’s up and around, says Charlie Tritschler, vice president of Amazon Devices. If your dad has hypertension or needs to take his meds, Astro can bring him his blood pressure monitor or pills at scheduled times. It schleps items in a cargo compartment. The robot has a 10.1-inch high-definition touch screen that kind of doubles as a face and gives Astro a bit of a personality. As Astro follows people, they can engage in a video call with family or use the screen to watch Amazon Prime or Netflix. Astro is capable of all the same . It also has a camera that captures 5-megapixel still images and high -definition 720p video and a separate periscope camera that can capture 12-megapixel stills and 1080p high definition video. The periscope can rise 3½ feet from the floor, tall enough to peer over most kitchen countertops.

Cameras can be turned off

If you’re , Amazon says you can turn off Astro’s cameras, microphones, navigation and depth sensors. You can also define out-of-bounds zones to restrict where Astro can go. Do you honestly want Astro following you into the bathroom? Home monitoring is turned off by default, and Amazon employs encryption to protect data that’s in transit from Astro or the Astro app to the cloud. When running low on power, the robot can autonomously navigate back to its charging station and juice up, similar to Roomba. Amazon has a long history with industrial robots that perform repeatable tasks in the company’s warehouses. But “trying to do something in the home is way harder given there’s no such thing as the prototypical home [and] people move stuff around,” Tritschler says. Floors, carpets, walls, dust, lighting, pets and people all can get in the way. Household robots cannot climb stairs, though they can avoid tumbling down them. For safety, Tritschler says, Astro is quiet but not too quiet. Since it is low to the ground, Astro by design will make some road noise so an older user especially will know that it’s coming. Safety is also top of mind for Dooley at Labrador, “so a 5-year-old doesn’t take it for a joy ride.” AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe , keep an eye on Tesla. CEO Elon Musk showed video at a conference - in summer 2021 of a humanoid general-purpose robot that he said he expected will come out in prototype form this year. It will stand 5 feet, 8 inches tall, have a screen as a head and, Musk said, “make use of all the same tools we use in the car. … Can you talk to it and say, ‘Please go to the store and get me the following groceries?’ I think we can do that.” But Musk volunteered that his Tesla Bot doesn’t work yet. In March, Intuition Robotics formally launched ElliQ, the robot that gained Perez’s affection. The starting subscription price is $29.99 per month for an annual plan that includes unlimited use of the hardware and software and automatic software updates, plus support. Intuition Robotics is also charging a $249.99 enrollment fee that covers the setup and installation, shipping and handling, four wellness coach sessions and three service-free concierge transactions. Among its partnerships, the company is teaming with the Mayo Clinic on health content, SilverSneakers on fitness videos and Uber Health to give users access to transportation. CEO and Cofounder Dor Skuler says Intuition Robotics learned “together with its early adopters about the value of the product,”adding that his team is always asking why people are willing to share so much of their life with ElliQ when they know she is not real. "They see ElliQ as an entity. Not as a device and not as person, but something in between,” Skuler says. “And they’ll tell you, ‘We think ElliQ is taking an active interest in us. We think she’s trying to improve our day. We find her suggestions helpful and caring.’ … The fascinating aspect is the relationship that’s formed between the human and their digital companion.” This story, originally published Nov. 8, 2021, has been updated to reflect the launches of Alexa Together, Labrador Retriever and ElliQ. Edward C. Baig is a contributing writer who covers technology and other subjects. He previously worked for USA Today, Business Week, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune and is the author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. More on home-family AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS