Abstract
Twenty-five years ago, robotics guru Joseph Engelberger had a mission to motivate research teams all over the world to design the ‘Elderly Care Giver’, a multitasking personal robot assistant for everyday care needs in old age. In this article, we discuss how this vision of omnipotent care robots has influenced the design strategies of care robotics, the development of R&D initiatives and ethics research on use of care robots. Despite the expectations of robots revolutionizing care of older people, the role of robots in human care has remained marginal. The value of world trade in service robots, including care robots, is rather small. We argue that the implementation of robots in care is not primarily due to negative user attitudes or ethical problems, but to problems in R&D and manufacturing. The care robots currently available on the market are capable of simple, repetitive tasks or colloquial interaction. Thus far, also research on care robots is mostly conducted using imaginary scenarios or small-scale tests built up for research purposes. To develop useful and affordable robot solutions that are ethically, socially and ecologically sustainable, we suggest that robot initiatives should be evaluated within the framework of care ecosystems. This implies that attention has to be paid to the social, emotional and practical contexts in which care is given and received. Also, the political, economic and ecological realities of organizing care and producing technological commodities have to be acknowledged. It is time to openly discuss the drivers behind care robot initiatives to outline the bigger picture of organizing care under conditions of limited resources.
Highlights
The share of people aged 80 years or over was 27 million in 2016 in Europe and it is expected to more than double by 2080 (Eurostat 2017)
We examine the promises of high quality, affordable multitasking care robots that were introduced 25 years ago and review the current robot design strategies in the light of social scientific knowledge on care
The idea behind a feeding robot (e.g. Obi robot) is that a disabled person will not need human assistance with eating because the spoon feeds food into the person’s mouth. In such design care is seen as a series of activities or instrumental tasks, some of which can be replaced by technological solutions and robotic devices to cut costs, increase effectiveness and save time and human labour
Summary
The share of people aged 80 years or over was 27 million in 2016 in Europe and it is expected to more than double by 2080 (Eurostat 2017). The idea behind a feeding robot (e.g. Obi robot) is that a disabled person will not need human assistance with eating because the spoon feeds food into the person’s mouth In such design care is seen as a series of activities or instrumental tasks, some of which can be replaced by technological solutions and robotic devices to cut costs, increase effectiveness and save time and human labour. Community-dwelling older persons often have care needs related to instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and receive help from different sources to meet these needs They may purchase cleaning service from a private service provider, have sons and daughters to help with grocery shopping, and utilize some kind of health technologies, a safety alarm for example. Feeling of social integration is even strongly related to life expectancy (Holt-Lunstad et al 2015)
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