In this era of rapid technological advancement, when discussing how technology can help improve the lives of the elderly, elderly care robots are undoubtedly a hot topic. Attention from all sectors of society, how far are elderly care robots from us? Elderly robots approach silver haired residents and enter a nursing home in Chengdu. A humanoid robot named "Kuafu" is transforming into a "Tai Chi coach", using smooth movements to lead the elderly to stretch their muscles and bones. This robot can also tell stories to the elderly, interact and converse with them, and act as a guide and guide when family members or visitors visit... Leng Xiaokun, Chairman of Leju (Shenzhen) Robot Technology Co., Ltd., which developed this robot, said, "We focus on developing humanoid robots, and one of our clear goals is to let them enter homes and nursing homes to serve elderly care." Elderly care robots, a seemingly distant novelty, are accelerating their entry into real life. By the end of 2024, the population aged 60 and above in China exceeded 310 million. With the deepening of population aging, elderly care robots may become an important force in providing elderly care services. As they age, the elderly population will experience varying degrees of functional decline or even disability in perception, physical strength, and cognition. Disabled, demented, and elderly people have a greater demand for toileting, bathing, eating, wearing and undressing, and traveling, as well as a more prominent need for emotional companionship, "said Sun Liguo, Vice President of the Beijing Elderly Association. The bracket accurately supports the elderly's legs and adjusts the support strength in real time based on gait capture motion data... Walking into a rehabilitation experience center in Fengtai District, Beijing, the reporter saw several elderly people experiencing exoskeleton robots that assist in walking. Previously, walking was inseparable from caregivers, but now practicing with robots, I can walk for 10 minutes on my own, "said Mr. Zhang, who is undergoing rehabilitation here. At present, the demand for elderly care robots mainly focuses on life assistance, health monitoring, emotional companionship, and rehabilitation training to fill the gap of caregivers, reduce family care pressure, and improve the quality of life of the elderly. Bathing robots, toilet care robots, assistive walking robots, etc. are "on duty" in nursing homes; Wearable exoskeleton robots assist elderly individuals with limb dysfunction in intelligent and personalized rehabilitation training; Companion robots integrate functions such as schedule reminders, chatting to relieve boredom, and emergency calls, becoming life companions for the elderly... The technology of elderly care robots is constantly iterating and the application scenarios are gradually becoming more diverse. What obstacles do large-scale applications need to overcome? On the one hand, the huge market demand has catalyzed the rapid development of the elderly care robot industry; On the other hand, due to factors such as low technological maturity, weak interaction capabilities, and high prices, the large-scale application of elderly care robots still needs to overcome many obstacles. The interaction design of elderly care robots is a core issue. ”Lu Zeping, the director of the affiliated rehabilitation hospital of the National Rehabilitation Assistive Equipment Research Center, said that many robots have complex operations and unfriendly feedback mechanisms, which make it difficult for the elderly to interact with the equipment and exacerbate the "digital divide" between the elderly and robots. Obtaining rich training data in real scenarios is key to making elderly care robots more intelligent and user-friendly. The reporter learned from the interview that data scarcity is currently a major constraint factor in the process of developing new products, upgrading algorithms, and improving user experience for enterprises. The data that embodied intelligence relies on mainly comes from the operation data of robots and the data generated by human operation of robots. R&D personnel need to go to nursing homes and other places for point-to-point operation and collection. Currently, there are problems such as limited access opportunities and high collection costs. ”Ji Junjie, an algorithm expert at the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, said. Weak interaction and high cost are important challenges for the large-scale application of elderly care robots. Liu Shaoshan, Director of the Body Intelligence Center at the Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, analyzed that there is still a big gap between the current technological level and the complete replacement of human employees by elderly care robots. Continuous innovation and breakthroughs are needed in multiple dimensions such as models, hardware, scenarios, and safety. For example, some emotional care robots for the elderly have a relatively rigid understanding of natural language. In addition, some bathing robots are expensive and difficult to popularize. The reporter learned from the interview that some exoskeleton robots that help the elderly walk cost over 10000 yuan, and the unit price of high-end rehabilitation robots mostly exceeds 100000 yuan, which is beyond the affordability of ordinary families. In addition, how to connect elderly care robots with communities and elderly care institutions is also an urgent problem that needs to be solved. Chen Yuxi, Industry Director of the Service Robot Division of Shenyang Xinsong Robot Automation Co., Ltd., said, "Whether it's elderly people who fall and seek help through robots, or voice calling robots for food delivery, travel, etc., they all need the support of community embedded elderly care institutions, and some work must rely on professional personnel. How to promote the rapid development of the elderly care robot industry and let the elderly share the fruits of technological development? The policy is continuously strengthening. In February of this year, the international standard for elderly care robots led by China was officially released, providing a benchmark for the design, manufacturing, testing, and certification of various types of elderly care robots; In May, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly deployed a batch of pilot projects for the research and application of intelligent elderly care service robots in stages, accelerating the empowerment of robots in intelligent elderly care services and the development of the silver economy. Various regions are also intensively implementing measures: the Beijing Action Plan for Innovation and Industrial Cultivation of Intelligent Technology with Body, which proposes to promote the demonstration and application of intelligent robots with body in elderly care institutions; The Action Plan for Innovative Development of the Robot Industry in Jiangsu Province proposes that the application depth and breadth of service robots and special robots in the industry will be significantly improved, and they will be widely used in fields such as home services, elderly care and disability assistance, and medical rehabilitation; Guangdong organized the "Robot Plus" action to encourage cities and regions to explore and open up various application scenarios around elderly care services and other fields... Zhang Yunquan, a researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in the future, efforts should be made to tackle key problems in technology, adapt the scene, and build an ecosystem to promote industrial leapfrog development. Liu Shaoshan believes that for the specific needs of elderly care, the key to breakthroughs in elderly care robot technology lies in hardware, especially in the improvement of dexterity and chirality. He suggested strengthening policy support, creating a more mature and complete industrial system, especially strengthening venture capital, and accelerating the transformation and implementation of innovative achievements in elderly care robots. In the opinion of Yan Zhixiang, a nurse at Beijing Yizhuang Elderly Care Center, the most important thing to truly make robots "useful" and "effective" in the front line of elderly care is to understand the real needs of different elderly people. He suggested that in the context of rapid development of home-based elderly care, the research and development direction of elderly care robots should be closer to home use scenarios, paying attention to details such as space limitations, operational convenience, and nursing coordination. All parties are looking forward to meeting the expectations of people's livelihoods and market demand. Through joint efforts in policy support, technological innovation, industrial applications, and other aspects, we aim to accelerate the entry of elderly care robots into ordinary households and better benefit billions of people. (New Society)