Robots may soon socialise with the elderly A new online platform for the elderly and the prospect of eventually building interactive robots that complement the platform promise to make the lives of Europe’s ageing population more comfortable. Industrial Technologies Society © shin28, Shutterstock With Europe’s life expectancy rising to over 80 years of age and a major increase in the number of elderly, the continent is facing formidable social and economic challenges ahead. The EU-funded SOCIALROBOT (SocialRobot) project investigated how Information and communication technologies (ICT) can support the elderly in staying active and healthy in their old age. It aimed to foster knowledge transfer and build synergies between academia and industry to achieve its aims. One of the project’s key priorities was to integrate cutting-edge robotic technologies with virtual social care communities and services in order to enhance independent living and improve quality of life. This involved outlining the elderly’s requirements such as cognitive decline or limitations in mobility and fostering virtual robot support driven virtually by family members, friends and neighbours. Beyond outlining needs of the elderly and developing a social robot community network and platform, the project’s work also involved conducting a behavioural analysis to adapt social relationships and contexts of the elderly. SOCIALROBOT then developed the SocialRobot platform, defining the required system design and architecture. It tested the platform’s ICT-based services which include care and wellness, mobility monitoring, and guidance. This has prepared the concept for entry into the social robotics market, with one project partner having embarked on building actual robot prototypes for elderly assistance. Overall, the project produced valuable, concrete outputs that have been published through conferences, workshops and publications. Several proposed solutions and innovations have been integrated into new online platforms, with interest from academia and industry in exploiting the results further. This is expected to provide a better quality of life for the elderly and help Europe prepare for managing its rapidly ageing society. GROWMEUP, a new H2020 project, is using the SocialRobot platform as its core. Keywords Robots, SOCIALROBOT, elderly, ageing, quality of life
