Over the past few decades, roboticists have developed systems for a variety of real-world settings, including healthcare facilities. Among their many possible uses in healthcare, robots could help to assist patients in nursing homes or hospitals; for instance, administering medication, food or helping patients to walk. Researchers at Hokkaido University in Japan have recently developed an innovative autonomous system that can serve as a walking aid for patients in nursing facilities or hospitals. This robotic medical walker, presented in a paper published in SpringerLink's Artificial Life and Robotics journal, does not require any intervention from nurses and caregivers, as it can autonomously locate patients and approach them when they wish to go for a walk or move to a different place within their healthcare facility. "If a patient is able to walk using a walker, doctors typically recommend walkers over wheelchairs as a tool to perform moderate exercise in nursing facilities," Yuto Mori, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore.

Humanoid robots and advances in information technology are increasingly being used by nursing homes in a bid to give elderly people a better quality of life. In one example, a nursing home in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, has enlisted the help of the Telenoid robot via which people can communicate remotely with an elderly person using a microphone and camera. "Grandma, what color flowers do you like?" the Telenoid robot asked a resident in her 80s at the Urayasu elderly nursing home last month. "Pink cherry blossoms," the woman responded with a smile. Telenoid, which weighs 2.7 kg and is 50 cm tall, was developed by Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro and his associates.

Creating a successful robot company based around providing commercial services is not easy, although as of just the last few years, advances in robotics technology has at least made it possible. Companies like Savioke have shown that robotics has reached a point where autonomous platforms can operate in semi-structured environments, doing useful tasks reliably and cost effectively enough to make a compelling business case. Luvozo, a startup founded in 2013 and based in College Park, Md., is bringing autonomous robots to semi-structured environments with an enormous amount of potential: skilled nursing facilities for seniors. They're introducing a "robot concierge" called SAM, designed to "provide frequent check-ins and non-medical care for residents in long-term care settings" through autonomous navigation, telepresence, and an innovative fall hazard detection system. The potential market here is enormous, and to find out more, we stopped by Luvozo and spoke with CEO and co-founder David Pietrocola.