Robots offer the elderly a helping hand

Low birth rates and higher life expectancies mean that those over 65 years old now will account for 28.7 % of Europe's population by 2080, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistics arm. It means the age-dependency ratio – the proportion of the elderly compared with the number of workers – will almost double from 28.8 % in 2015 to 51 % in 2080, straining healthcare systems and national budgets. Yet there's hope marching over the horizon, in the form of robots. The creators of one humanoid robot under development for the elderly say it can understand people's actions and learn new behaviours in response, even though it is devoid of arms. Robots can be programmed to understand an elderly person's preferences and habits to detect changes in behaviour: for example if a yoga devotee misses a class, it will ask why, while if an elderly person falls it will automatically alert caregivers or emergency services.