Helper Robots are Part of Our Future
There are robots that are under development that is designed as a helper around the home. His name is Herb. He is being designed to fetch things around the home such as cups and even clean up the kitchen. Another robot, Hector, is designed to remind patients to take their medicine. In addition to help them keep track of things like eyeglasses. Even assist in the event the person they are looking after falls. Finally there is a robot named Cody, who can help you bathe and is gentle enough to help elderly patients.
While the technology is pretty close for production, do we really want these robots looking after us? Some people will be talking to their robots and treating them as if they are a human being. Will they in turn carry on a conversation with us? Will we begin to think that they care about us. Also will they provide emotional comfort in the same manner that a pet will be a friend to many elderly patients?
We Need More Experience with Robots
These are all questions that are being asked and will only be answered once robots are introduced into homes around the country. Many people will adopt them to make their lives easier and many will steadfastly refuse to use them. Only time will tell how well they work, how well they are adopted and how many uses we can use them for in our homes.
The more human we can make them look, in terms of form factor and even dressing them with clothes will probably enhance their use and make us more comfortable with having them around. We are looking forward to hearing more about the use of robots in our homes.