The Current Status and Future Development of Elderly Care Robot Technology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61173/fz8apd74Keywords:
Elderly care robots, technical foundations, development challenges, aging societyAbstract
The increasing ageing of the world population is reforming the demographics and the classical paradigms on elder care have been caught in the crossfire of lack of professional care providers, high care load, and failure to provide good care. Robot technology of elderly care has therefore become a major point of direction to crack out of this dilemma. The paper provides a systematic review of literature and case analysis of the situation and future of the elderly care robot technology. The structural design, based on safety and adaptability, at the technical foundation level is realized through 3D printing as it provides lightweight and customization, as well as through soft actuators that improve the safety of the interaction. Sensor technology goes beyond the single-perception barrier of sensor technology through multi-modal fusion, and non-intrusive health monitoring is possible through flexible tactile sensors. Artificial intelligence enables robots to plan autonomous motion, and bionic neural networks and fuzzy logic codes control the avoidance of obstacles and positioning in moving environments optimally. The application in practice, robots have proved useful in everyday care, health control, and emotional companionship, which might lead to the better life of older people and relieve the burden on the care. Meanwhile, current technologies face challenges including insufficient flexibility and environmental adaptability, high R&D and maintenance costs, low social acceptance, safety risks, and a disconnect between technology and needs. Three areas, namely, technology, design, and ecology should be developed in the future. As the essence is that technology empowers humanity, it strives to support the development of a sustainable elderly care system and fulfill the vision of dignified home-based aging of the aged.
References
[1] Rabheru R.: Mental health promotion and risk reduction strategies for mental disorders in older persons: why should governments and policymakers care?. Consortium Psychiatricum. 2022, 3:22-8.
[2] DESA U. Our world is growing older[J]. UN DESA releases new report on ageing, 2019.
[3] Ribeiro, T., Gonçalves, F., Garcia, I. S., Lopes, G., & Ribeiro, A. F. CHARMIE: A collaborative healthcare and home service and assistant robot for elderly care. Applied Sciences, 2021,11(16), 7248.
[4] Padhan S., Mohapatra A., Ramasamy S. K., et al. Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in elderly healthcare: enabling independence and quality of life[J]. Cureus, 2023, 15(8).
[5] Chen, H. W., Liu, G., Wang, X. W., et al. Application and prospect of lightweight composite materials and 3D printing technology in service robots[J]. Journal of Engineering Studies, 2022, 14(1): 30-39.
[6] Gul J. Z., Sajid M., Rehman M. M., et al. 3D printing for soft robotics–a review[J]. Science and technology of advanced materials, 2018, 19(1): 243-262.
[7] Polygerinos P., Wang Z., Galloway K. C., et al. Soft robotic glove for combined assistance and at-home rehabilitation[J]. Robotics and autonomous systems, 2015, 73: 135-143.
[8] M. Duduta, D. R. Clarke, R. J. Wood, in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ 2017.
[9] Boyraz P., Runge G., Raatz A.. An overview of novel actuators for soft robotics[C]//Actuators. MDPI, 2018, 7(3): 48.
[10] Lei, B., & Chen, L. J. Light-controlled bionic liquid crystal elastomer soft actuators[J]. Chinese Journal of Liquid Crystals and Displays, 2024, 39(5): 707-724.
[11] Liu L., Wang X., Yang X., et al. Path planning techniques for mobile robots: Review and prospect[J]. Expert Systems with Applications, 2023, 227: 120254.
[12] Kim T., Lee S., Hong T., et al. Heterogeneous sensing in a multifunctional soft sensor for human-robot interfaces[J]. Science robotics, 2020, 5(49): eabc6878.
[13] Wajahat M., Lee S., Kim J H., et al. Flexible strain sensors fabricated by meniscus-guided printing of carbon nanotubepolymer composites[J]. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018, 10(23): 19999-20005.
[14] Lin Z. M., Yang J., Li X. S., et al. Large-scale and washable smart textiles based on triboelectric nanogenerator arraysforselfpowered sleeping monitoring[J]. Advanced Functional Materials, 2018, 28(1): 1704112.
[15] Zhou C., Huang B., Fränti P.,A review of motion planning algorithms for intelligent robots[J]. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 2022, 33(2): 387-424.
[16] Luo M., Research on path planning and trajectory tracking of mobile robot in complex environment[J]. University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 2021.
[17] Li M., Mobile robot path planning based on fuzzy control[J]. Hebei University of Technology, 2015.
[18] Yang, Z. D., Ding, J. M., Xu, Y. Y., et al. Design of an intelligent auxiliary eating system based on SOPC[J]. Experimental Science and Technology, 2024, 14(6): 36-39.
[19] Wise M., Ferguson M., King D., et al. Fetch And Freight: Standard Platforms for Service Robot Applications [C]// Workshop on Autonomous Mobile Service Robots,San Jose CA:Fetch Robotics Inc, 2016.
[20] Davies N.. Can Robots Handle Your Healthcare [ J ]. Chem Eng Technol, 2016, 11(9):58-61.
[21] Fischinger, D.; Einramhof, P.; Papoutsakis, K.; Wohlkinger, Dean&Francis Qianen Zhou W.; Mayer, P.; Panek, P.; Hofmann, S.; Koertner, T.; Weiss, A.; Argyros, A.; et al. Hobbit, a care robot supporting independent living at home: First prototype and lessons learned. Robot. Auton. Syst. 2016, 75, 60–78. [CrossRef]
[22] Jiang, Q. Design and implementation of an intelligent medicine box system based on STM32[D]. Hangzhou: Hangzhou Dianzi University, 2015.
[23] Zhang, T. H., Wang, S. H., He, P., et al. Design of an intelligent medicine box based on ARM[J]. Journal of Chongqing University of Technology (Natural Science), 2018, 32(6): 28.
[24] Shibata T., Wada K., Robot therapy: a new approach for mental healthcare of the elderly–a mini-review[J]. Gerontology, 2011, 57(4): 378-386.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 by the authors.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
