Question: How do your robots help the world

Conor McGinn answered on 8 Mar 2016:

See this link for a description about what the robot I built at NASA did – /codingf16-zone/2016/03/08/what-is-the-best-thing-you-got-a-robot-to-do/

The robots I’m working on now are not complete – so they haven’t done much to help anyone yet. But let me give you an idea of what I’m trying to get them to do.
Some background – people are living longer and families are getting smaller. This means that soon we will have lots of old people and not enough young people to take care of them. If this happens, elderly people will become increasingly lonely and depressed and their quality of life will reduce. To make it easier to give them nursing, they wont be allowed live at home (nursing cost too high) and instead they will move to a care home where they will all live together.
If I can develop a robot that can do just a few things, then I think we can reverse this. Some things the robot should do:
* monitor health of user – we can do this by putting some wearable sensors on the user – if the user falls or becomes ill, the robot alerts emergency services. Then sends them all the information it has that may be crucial for helping the person
* falls are a huge risk for elderly people. if the robot can do housework, then the user has less a risk of falling
* elderly people often live alone leading to isolation and depression. My robot will be able to keep the elderly user company and play games to keep their mind active. I’m trying to make the experience like that of having a pert – except one that needs much less care and is much smarter.