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Feds Creating Robots for Old People
The Washington Free Beacon ^ | December 12, 2014 | Elizabeth Harrington

Posted on 12/13/2014 12:04:11 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The federal government is financing the creation of robots that can assist the elderly and make sure they are eating healthily.

A nearly $800,000 project from the National Science Foundation (NSF) is pairing the University of Pennsylvania with a robot company to create the machines, which will be able to deliver glasses of water to senior citizens.

The government said that the project is necessary due to a demographic crisis in America where soon there will not be enough young people to take care of their elders.

“This Partnership For Innovation project develops and tests the use of service robots to monitor and improve health of the elderly,” the grant for the project, awarded in August, states. “The growing elderly population coupled with low birth rates in the developed world is creating a crisis in healthcare. The number of senior citizens is outgrowing the number of working-age adults to care for them.”

“In the U.S. alone, the number of seniors over age 65 is projected to double from year 2000 to 2030, reaching 71.5 million,” it continued. “With the scarcity of care options available, affordable robots are a welcome solution for assisting elders with small tasks that would normally be done by a caregiver.”

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Mark Yim, a professor in the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) department, are joining with Savioke, a California-based company that is building robots for the services industry.

The robot developed by the NSF project will be able to perform a “limited set of elder-relevant manipulation tasks,” including “picking up dropped items or filling a water glass.” The machine will also be used for data collection on seniors’ health.

“This mobile manipulator robot will be used to perform service tasks, such as delivering water to elders,” the grant said. “The data gathered by these robots and how elders use them in the field will provide information about how robots can help create a larger data-driven health monitoring system.”

“While helping elders with activities of daily living in an elder care facility, the system learns about them,” it added. “It can then do things such as help ensure that they are eating or drinking healthily.”

The project, which is expected to continue until 2017 and has cost $799,860 so far, is building off of Savioke’s robots, including the recently released “SaviOne.”

SaviOne provides room service to guests at an Aloft hotel in Cupertino, Calif. The machine looks like a moving trash can with an iPad on top, and makes beep noises to sound like a robot.

The company calls SaviOne its “robot butler,” and encourages people to take selfies with it, like this hotel guest, who was disappointed after paying $300 a night only to find the robot out of order.

The University of Pennsylvania is currently working on adding a “prismatic joint arm” to Savioke’s robots.

“We are passionate about delivering easy-to-use yet sophisticated robots that can help people,” the company says on its website.

Savioke believes that personal robots can help people to “achieve their potential,” and wants them “anywhere people sleep or eat.”

“Over time, personal robots will help people to achieve their potential, enhancing our strengths, overcoming our weaknesses, and endowing us with new capabilities we are just beginning to imagine,” they said. “We are inspired by people who use technology to overcome disabilities, and we believe that robots have the potential to make all of our lives better.”

Savioke’s CEO, Steve Cousins, formerly was president of Willow Garage, a robot company that helped found the Robots for Humanity initiative. Robots for Humanity was successful in helping Henry Evans, who suffered a debilitating stoke at 40 years old leaving him mute and quadriplegic.

“It took me several years, but with the help of an incredibly supportive family I finally decided life was still worth living,” Evans told an audience in a lecture 3,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., from his bed in California. “I became fascinated with using technology to help the severely disabled.”

Through robotic technology, Evans is now able to communicate, shave, open his refrigerator, and fly drones, only with the movement of his head.

A Japanese company has already developed robots that are used as companions for the elderly. “Paro,” is designed to resemble a baby harp seal, and elderly residents at a California retirement community mistook the robot for an animal.

The NSF is also investing in machines for children, committing $10 million to build robots that will act as kids’ “personal trainers,” in an effort to influence their behavior and eating habits.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Japan; News/Current Events; US: California; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: children; cupertino; demographicwintet; disabilities; elderly; health; irobot; lowbirthrate; nannystate; nsf; nutrition; robots; savioke; savione; upa
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1 posted on 12/13/2014 12:04:11 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: SheLion; Eric Blair 2084; -YYZ-; 31R1O; 383rr; AFreeBird; AGreatPer; Alamo-Girl; Alia; altura; ...

I Robot Demographic Winter Nanny State PING!


2 posted on 12/13/2014 12:05:00 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (The mods stole my tagline.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Signed up for Obamacare, yet, master...?

3 posted on 12/13/2014 12:05:49 PM PST by gaijin
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

They make it impossible for college kids to flirt.

Then they make it impossible for young professionals to flirt.

They make it impossible for young military people to flirt.

Then there’s a demographic implosion.

Then the leaders are all HUGELY surprised.


4 posted on 12/13/2014 12:07:29 PM PST by gaijin
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Reminds me of this clip from the sci-fi movie, “Elysium.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzGzf0S0WqI


5 posted on 12/13/2014 12:07:51 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I’m elderly and I’d rather crawl than have a robot help me out.
.


6 posted on 12/13/2014 12:08:34 PM PST by Mears
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To: Jack Hydrazine

The robots will be equipped with 20kw lasers.


7 posted on 12/13/2014 12:09:13 PM PST by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Sari!! Jack daniels please ....... two fingers

In my special glass!


8 posted on 12/13/2014 12:10:16 PM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
If I live to a very old age, I do not want the nanny state to be telling me what to eat and how much water to drink.

Picture it....old folks locked in cages in assisted living facilities, being cared for by robots.

9 posted on 12/13/2014 12:10:54 PM PST by grania
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To: gaijin

I suspect that we’ll find Roe v. Wade had a lot to do with it, too.


10 posted on 12/13/2014 12:13:10 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (The mods stole my tagline.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The robots will be programmed to kill. It will be a back door death panel. Once a person reaches 75, the robot “servant” will kill it’s master.


11 posted on 12/13/2014 12:14:18 PM PST by Cowboy Bob (They are called "Liberals" because the word "parasite" was already taken.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

And the best part is that the robots will also vote for their seniors. Of course, they’ll only be capable of casting ballots for Democrats!


12 posted on 12/13/2014 12:14:24 PM PST by DakotaGator (Weep for the lost Republic! And keep your powder dry!!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

the robot will look like Michelle O....and it will stuff inedible “healthy food” (Soylent Green) down your throat when you get old, whether you like it or not

if you refuse, it will gag you instantly

thus saving the Obamacare Death Committee need of holding any meeting in your case


13 posted on 12/13/2014 12:15:11 PM PST by faithhopecharity ((Brilliant, Profound Tag Line Goes Here, just as soon as I can think of one..))
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
We're on it!


14 posted on 12/13/2014 12:16:51 PM PST by Ouchthatonehurt ("When you're going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“...due to a demographic crisis in America where soon there will not be enough young people to take care of their elders.”

That’s only the Liberals. They’re busy aborting their future caregivers.

Seriously, none of this is going to end well. We truly ARE going to be a Nation Divided. And I don’t care WHAT that Red/Blue map shows. We’re all screwed.

However, if Uncle Sam wants to give me a Cabana Boy to tend to my bunions in my Golden Years, I’m all over THAT, LOL!


15 posted on 12/13/2014 12:16:53 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Old people will not be a problem.

When the system collapses, the feral Democrats will murder those who can’t fight back in the course of looting. It won’t be newsworthy, because they will mostly be old white people.


16 posted on 12/13/2014 12:17:45 PM PST by LucianOfSamasota (Tanstaafl - its not just for breakfast anymore...)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
make sure they are eating healthily.

Whether they want to or not.

17 posted on 12/13/2014 12:18:32 PM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: grania

I’m with you-I’ll disappear and never be found first. The robots probably wouldn’t be much different from the caregivers at the assisted living cages now...


18 posted on 12/13/2014 12:20:43 PM PST by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
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To: faithhopecharity
"...the robot will look like Michelle O"


19 posted on 12/13/2014 12:20:52 PM PST by Ouchthatonehurt ("When you're going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Additionally, they will be protected from the terrible secret of space.
20 posted on 12/13/2014 12:22:17 PM PST by Slings and Arrows ("I Only Love You When I'm Drunk" - http://youtu.be/uT-tCbvfDUg)
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