Modern medicine offers the possibility that we will all live longer and be healthier. But inevitably the last few years of most people’s lives will find them needing caretaking of some sort. As many Baby Boomers already know, taking care of aging parents is a labor-intensive task. Even a moderately disabled person can require around-the-clock care and more than one helper to move from place to place.
Today, the members of the huge Boomer generation are struggling to take care of their aging parents, but the problem will be compounded when the Xer and Millennial generations have to take care of the Boomers. Not only is the effort going to be huge, but the cost of paying for that effort is expected to be enormous.
The question is: Can information technology be applied to solve this problem? The answer appears to be yes.
Japan is experiencing the same aging population as the United States, and engineers there are busy developing robotic technology to give seniors a new lease on life. For example, Applied AI Systems has developed a so-called “intelligent” wheelchair that is able to navigate automatically and move around obstacles.
At the University of Tsukuba, researchers are developing a robotic suit that uses hydraulic power to boost muscular strength in elderly people. Sensors in the suit read electrical signals that the brain normally uses to activate muscles. Those signals activate motors that boost the person’s strength. This so-called Hybrid Assistive Limb makes it possible for an individual who couldn’t stand on his own to walk with ease.
But the elderly and infirm need more than just mobility and strength. They need companionship, too. The Japanese have been working on this as well, according to an article in The Globe and Mail.1
A company called ZMP in Tokyo has released a helpmate and companion robot called Nuvo that sells for $6,000. Using a cell phone as a control panel, you can direct its movements and have it take pictures and send them back to you over the Internet. It tells time in a voice with a Japanese accent, plays music, and shakes hands. It also bows in a traditional Japanese greeting.
Next year, a new version of Nuvo will be capable of reading aloud, checking appointments, delivering the news, and speaking in a normal tone of voice. As it evolves, it will display more and more human characteristics and gestures.
The most human-like robot of all, however, may turn out to be the new “wakamaru” from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. According to The Nikkei Report,2 Mitsubishi has teamed up with six other companies to produce a robot that can do everything from hold a conversation to act as a night watchman.
Wakamaru will download a blueprint of your house and store up to 10 faces and names so that it can recognize everyone in your family. It will be able to download news from the Internet and hold a conversation about it, which would be invaluable for a home-bound elderly person. The face-identification function can be used to alert the user when a stranger approaches. And wakamaru can aid a faulty memory by remembering appointments or other obligations, such as birthdays of relatives.
Toshiba is another company at the forefront of applying robot technology to the problems of the aged, according to a report in Asia Pulse.3 It recently displayed two of its new robots at an expo in Japan. Demonstrating the company’s advanced proprietary voice signal processing technology, Toshiba showed off the ApriAlpha, which can recognize and respond to voices, even in a noisy environment. It can carry on simple conversations and operate home appliances.
Another robot, the ApriAttenda, is the first to be able to identify and follow a specific person using Toshiba’s advanced image processing technology. Because it can sense obstacles and avoid them, it could, for example, lead a blind person. Soon the reprogrammable robot will be able to accompany a person on a shopping trip and carry packages.
Collectively, “service robots” like these are expected to become a $9.75 billion business by 2015 in Japan alone. But, beyond this category, robot technology is being applied directly to meet medical needs that will surely grow as the population ages.
Patients who have suffered strokes or other debilitating conditions will soon be assisted during rehab by robots rather than therapists. Kinetic Muscles, Inc. and Arizona State University are developing a device to build muscle strength in the arms, as reported by The Washington Post.4 The device, which will be commercially available in early 2007, gradually increases the complexity of tasks until the patient can perform them on his own.
Japan has also developed a robot to assist a weak or injured person in doing strengthening exercises, according to a report in MedGadget,5 an Internet journal of emerging medical technologies. Yaskawa Electric Corp., a maker of industrial robots, has been selling the rehab robots since 2000.
In the U.S., Intuitive Surgical, Inc., of Sunnyvale, California, is creating a robotic surgeon, according to a recent article in The Florida Times-Union.6
The $1 million da Vinci Surgical System performs prostate removals as well as certain kinds of kidney, cardiac, and gynecological surgery at the Mayo Clinic and elsewhere. Introduced in 1999, the system is already in 220 institutions in the U.S.
For example, West Marion Community Hospital in Ocala, Florida, did more than 200 prostatectomies with the da Vinci System last year. The advantages include smaller incisions, less pain, and faster recovery time.
As this trend advances, we expect to see the following six developments:
First, domestic robots in one form or another will become an integral part of the lives of almost every affluent person in Japan, the U.S. and the EU over the next decade. By 2009, there will be more than 4 million robots in domestic use worldwide, and the term “robot” will have lost any hint of science fiction that may still cling to it. The earliest models are already rapidly penetrating the mainstream market. A company called iRobot has sold 1.2 million of its Roomba robot vacuum cleaners in the past two and a half years. Its floor-mopping sibling, Scooba, was recently introduced. Mean-while, the company’s military robot, the PackBot, has gone on thousands of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, finding and defusing roadside bombs or searching dangerous areas.
Second, America will take the lead in the domestic robotics industry. So far, U.S. efforts are the only ones to be successfully commercialized, despite aggressive R&D efforts in Japan and South Korea. Within the next decade, alliances, partnerships, and cooperative research efforts across borders will bring the best technology forward and use the American system of marketing to ensure the spread of this technology. The first wave of robot technology for the home will be aimed at everyday chores, such as cleaning, with other household tasks quickly following. Already the Robomower RL 1000 from Friendly Robotics can mow the lawn, while the Roomba vacuums the floor. American firms will win big in this market, with Asian partners participating to bring down manufacturing costs.
Third, robots will incorporate and replace security cameras and sensors of all sorts, and assume the job of security in airports, schools, and other public places. By 2020, the long security lines at airports will be a thing of the past, as security-bots roam the boarding areas, detecting potential hazards. The days of passing through a magnetometer will be history. Security-bots will also improve the nation’s security by monitoring all the cargo that comes through seaports, which is too big of a job for humans.
Fourth, robots will take over many police and fire-fighting functions, eliminating much of the risk. Building on their success in Iraq and Afghanistan, companies that make battlefield robotic workhorses will adapt them to civilian uses. For example, bomb squads and SWAT teams already use robots to go where man may fear to tread. But they will become far more ubiquitous and will save many lives.
Fifth, propelled by these high-value applications, domestic robots will finally break through because the infrastructure and core technologies are already in place. Dreams of domestic robots have circulated for nearly a century, but they’ve always come to nothing because the underlying technologies weren’t in place. Today, there are inexpensive RFID tags and barcodes to help the robot identify objects. GPS technology makes it inexpensive for a robot to know its exact location on the surface of the Earth to within a few feet. There are low-cost solid-state cameras to support machine vision. Voice recognition software has made dramatic strides in recent years. Internet-enabled appliances, ranging from microwaves to dishwashers, coupled with inexpensive WIFI will soon make it possible for robots to control those appliances and monitor their activities. And the Internet itself makes it possible for humans to monitor robot activities for possible intervention, while it enables the robot to access relevant information from anywhere on the Web. One of the most exciting generic technologies is Dean Kamen’s Segway scooter; when coupled to a “robot sensory head” like the ones manufactured by Germany’ SICK, the Segway makes an ideal robot platform. Robot-specific technologies such as human-like “robot hands” have been developed at great cost for industrial and medical applications and can now be ported to domestic robots at relatively low cost. Now it’s up to enterprising entrepreneurs to combine these technologies to create viable commercial offerings.
Sixth, as robotics merges with nanotechnology by 2050, medical science will make huge strides in surgical and therapeutic procedures. Surgeries that can’t be done without an incision today will require nothing more than injecting a swarm of nano-bots into the bloodstream and then guiding them to the surgical site. This will enable not only “targeted surgery,” but such procedures as the cleaning of plaque from hardened arteries and the removal of kidney stones. There will be few areas in which robots of one type or another can’t help people live better lives.
References List : 1. The Globe and Mail, July 29, 2005, “I, Roommate,” by Mark Allen. ⓒ Copyright 2005 by Bell Globemedia Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. 2. Nikkei Report, August 17, 2005, “Mitsubishi Heavy Teams Up with Six Firms to Sell Home-Use Robot.” ⓒ Copyright 2005 by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. All rights reserved. 3. Asia Pulse, May 20, 2005, “Toshiba to Showcase Advances in Home Life Support Robot.” ⓒ Copyright 2005 by Asia Pulse Pte Limited. All rights reserved. 4. The Washington Post, June 7, 2005, “Rehab Robot,” by Matt McMillen. ⓒ Copyright 2005 by The Washington Post Company. All rights reserved. 5. For information about robotic equipment for patient rehabilitation, visit the MedGadget website at:www.medgadget.com/archives/2005/03/tem_lx2_typed.html 6. The Florida Times-Union, April 20, 2005, “Robot-Assisted Surgery Can Reduce Post-Op Pain,” by Urvaksh Karkaria. ⓒ Copyright 2005 by The Florida Times-Union. All rights reserved.
