Author: Chen Cheng (Researcher, Center for Journalism and Social Development, Renmin University of Chinese)
当前，人口老龄化问题正在全球范围内加速蔓延，已经成为世界各国必须面对的共同挑战。世界卫生组织数据显示，预计2050年全球60岁以上人口数量将达21亿，其中包括4.26亿80岁以上的老年人。在养老领域，养老机器人不仅可以减轻社会和家庭照料老年人的负担，还可支持老年人享受高质量的居家生活，因此智能养老机器人正逐渐成为世界各国应对人口老龄化挑战的重要技术手段。
Embodied intelligence is a cutting-edge field at the intersection of artificial intelligence and robotics, which emphasizes the autonomous learning and evolution of agents through the dynamic interaction between the body and the environment, and its core lies in the deep integration of perception, action and cognition. The continuous development and maturity of embodied intelligence technology has given birth to many intelligent robot products that are more agile, more flexible, and more functional. Through embodied intelligence technology, elderly care robots can achieve a variety of functions such as emotional companionship, health monitoring, and daily care, and can interact with the elderly more naturally, providing more efficient and humanized services. In this context, Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States and other countries and regions have vigorously developed the intelligent elderly care robot industry, and have achieved rich scientific and technological achievements and practical experience in technology research and development, product application and standardization; Relevant international organizations are also actively formulating international standards for the industry, providing benchmarks for the product design, manufacturing, testing and certification of various elderly care robots, and leading the healthy development of the global elderly care robot industry.
Japan and South Korea: A fusion of technology and emotion
Japan and South Korea are the world's oldest and fastest-ageing countries, respectively. Coupled with low fertility rates, high life expectancy, and social characteristics such as labor shortages, high social security pressures, and surging demand for medical and nursing care, the elderly care robot industry in Japan and South Korea has been driven by demand to develop rapidly and achieve a leading position in the world. On the basis of the development of embodied intelligent technology, Japanese and Korean elderly care robot products pay more attention to the functions of emotional companionship and etiquette interaction, and realize the integration of technology and emotion.
The Japanese government vigorously supports the development and production of intelligent elderly care robots in its own country, and its "White Paper on Aging Society" pointed out that it will make full use of advanced technology to improve the quality of life of the elderly, and provide necessary support in multiple links to accelerate the development and popularization of elderly care robots; At the same time, the "first-line robot generation of pension services" plan was launched, which subsidized enterprises to develop pension service robots in the form of direct government investment funds and consumption subsidies, and encouraged institutions and individual consumers to purchase corresponding products.
Representative companies and research institutes in Japan's intelligent elderly care robot industry include SoftBank Robotics Corporation, Toyota Corporation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and RIKEN. Piper, the intelligent elderly care robot developed by SoftBank Robotics, is the world's first humanoid robot that can recognize human emotions, it is equipped with voice recognition technology, joint technology that presents beautiful postures, and emotion recognition technology that analyzes expressions and tones, and has the ability to interact with the elderly through voice and expressions. Today, about 500 nursing homes across Japan are using "Piper", an intelligent robot that can not only lead the elderly to do sports, but also be able to accompany them in some simple chats.
The elderly care robot developed and produced in South Korea also pays attention to the functions of emotional companionship and etiquette interaction. The eponymous model of the robot produced by the country's medical and health start-up Xiaodaoer is based on the image concept of the grandchildren of the elderly, and the appearance is designed as a 7 to 0-year-old child, it has built-in sensors to perceive the state of the elderly in real time, and can communicate with the elderly in the tone of grandchildren or granddaughters, providing health monitoring and daily reminders, and is also equipped with a Korean-style etiquette interaction module, which can complete emotional etiquette actions such as bowing and touch interaction, so that the elderly can experience the joy of "Chenghuan knees". "Bohu" is a life and health monitoring intelligent robot developed and produced by Samsung Electronics, focusing on non-contact vital signs monitoring function, which can monitor the sleep of the elderly from a distance, feedback sleep quality, sleep time and other data, and the sensors on the panel can monitor the heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and other physical signs of the elderly in real time, and provide artificial intelligence-based abnormal behavior warning, such as the elderly will trigger an alarm when they are in a stationary state for a long time. The application scenarios of the robot are high-end elderly care communities and elderly families living alone.
At the Global Summit on Artificial Intelligence for Good, participants interact with a robot for social care. Xinhua News Agency
United States: Intelligent and personalized services
The United States is one of the first countries in the world to face the problem of population aging, and it is also one of the leading countries in the development of the global intelligent elderly care robot industry. The U.S. government through the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health and other institutions, for the research and development of intelligent elderly care robots to provide financial support, enterprises research and development of intelligent elderly care robots can enjoy tax relief policies, while the United States has Silicon Valley and other world-leading innovation centers, attracting a large number of technology companies and start-ups to invest in the field of intelligent elderly care robots. Venture capital and private equity investment in the intelligent elderly care robot industry has also promoted the rapid development and commercialization of technology. Due to the solid technical support of artificial intelligence, robotics and the Internet of Things, as well as the diversification of application scenarios for social pension needs, the elderly care robot industry in the United States attaches great importance to intelligent and personalized services.
In terms of intelligent features, American companies have a mature technical foundation in the fields of natural language processing, computer vision and machine learning, which enable elderly care robots to accurately understand the needs of the elderly, identify emotions and provide corresponding solutions. The United States also has certain advantages in robot motion control, sensor technology and human-computer interaction, so that elderly care robots can achieve accurate physical operation and natural interaction experience. Through IoT technology, elderly care robots can be interconnected with other smart devices (such as health monitoring devices, smart home systems) to achieve data sharing and collaborative work.
In terms of personalized characteristics, the unique pension culture of American society has brought about the diversification of pension needs and application scenarios. The pension demand scenarios in American society can be roughly divided into three main categories: family scenarios, institutional scenarios, and medical scenarios. In the family scenario, with the increase of elderly people living alone, robots are required to help the elderly complete daily housework, provide emotional companionship, and conduct health monitoring. In the scenario of nursing homes and nursing institutions, due to the shortage of nursing staff, intelligent elderly care robots are required to share part of the nursing work and help improve the work efficiency of personnel. In the medical scenario, elderly care robots are needed to assist the elderly in carrying out rehabilitation training, providing services such as early warning of health status and regular delivery of medicines.
In the U.S. intelligent elderly care robot industry, representative companies include Yavo Inc., Exao Biotechnology Inc., Arrow Robert Inc., and Catalia Health Inc. The intelligent nursing and elderly care robot developed and produced by Yawo Company can carry out personalized modeling based on the lifestyle data of different elderly people, build artificial intelligence and personal digital twin data models, and form a customized elderly care ecosystem, which fully reflects the industrial characteristics of intelligent and personalized services. Its product application scenarios are mainly for families and elderly care institutions, and can now accurately predict and prevent falls, monitor the precursors of reduced mobility and frailty, and customize rehabilitation training programs. The "Rumba" developed by Al Robert is an intelligent robot with house cleaning as the main function, the product can realize intelligent cleaning, support voice control and remote operation, and can reduce the housework burden of the elderly to a large extent, and the main application scenario is the family environment. "Exel NR" is an exoskeleton robot developed by Exao Biotech, which is mainly used for the rehabilitation of stroke and spinal cord injury, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis and other diseases in the elderly, including trauma or damage caused by aneurysms, brain tumors, oxygen loss or other diseases. Because the shape resembles the mechanical exoskeleton armor in the movie "The Wandering Earth", this product is also regarded as a true portrayal of science fiction equipment out of the screen and into reality.
Europe: Practicality and reliability are paramount
From a global perspective, Europe, as a region with a high degree of integrated development and industrialization, is also a key area for the development of the world's intelligent elderly care robot industry. With its strong strength in the field of mechanical engineering and automation technology, Germany occupies an important position in the global elderly care robot industry map, and has also become a typical country for the development of related industries in Europe. In addition to Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and other countries also occupy a place in the field of R&D and production of intelligent elderly care robots. The industrial technology and industrial products of the old industrialized countries in Europe are known for their rigor and practicality, and this universal technical characteristics are projected in the pension robot industry, creating the characteristics of both practicality and reliability of European intelligent pension robot products.
In its proposed "Industry 1998.0" plan, the German government has included the production of intelligent robots as a key support project. "Kyle Care 0 Generation" is a typical representative of Germany's new generation of intelligent elderly care robot products, it was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute of Manufacturing Engineering and Automation in Germany, since the first launch in 0 years, it has undergone four major iterations and upgrades, and each new model of the product has significantly improved its practicality and reliability. The "Kyle Care" series is positioned as a modular service robot designed for home and professional care environments, and has been widely used in elderly families, elderly care institutions and specific care projects in Germany, the United Kingdom and other European countries, mainly used to help the elderly deliver items, assist in house cleaning and interact with the elderly, etc., can be configured according to different task needs, flexibly adapt to various elderly family tasks, and can also automatically optimize the efficiency of task execution through continuous use and feedback.
German robotics start-up Defan Zhixing developed the elderly care robot "Wisdom Partner", is a remotely controlled robot designed for home care for the elderly, it integrates embodied intelligence, virtual reality and 5G technology, unlike other humanoid robots whose main materials are metal, "Wisdom Partner" is designed with a musculoskeletal system, human-like height, and the head is a projectable and interactive display screen, which can provide personalized care services and can seamlessly perform delicate two-handed tasks in a realistic home environment, For example, taking fruit from the refrigerator, taking clothes from the washing machine, cleaning the tabletop, playing chess and card games, etc., fully reflects the practical characteristics of the product.
The French robot company Alderand Intelligent Technology's product "Romeo Agent" is designed to help the elderly who lack the ability to take care of themselves to carry out a normal home life.
"Milo" is a companion robot developed by the British company Consaikun Intelligent Technology, its shape resembles a pet dog, the developer simulates the animal brain with bionic technology, and the built-in chip makes "Milo" have the ability to perceive and move. It can alleviate the loneliness of the elderly, and has the function of detecting the physical condition of the elderly and giving early warning. Leo, developed by the Swiss robot manufacturing company Fupeng, is a multi-functional medical care robot for the elderly, which can realize functions such as item disinfection, item grabbing, interactive entertainment, etc., and can assist the elderly to complete daily activities.
A split AI companion robot in the TCL booth photographed at the Consumer Electronics Show in the United States. Xinhua News Agency
International organizations: industry standards lead the way
The healthy development of any large-scale industry in the world is inseparable from scientific, effective and unified industry international standards, and the intelligent elderly care robot industry is no exception. A scientific and effective international standard can standardize the research and development, production, sales and other aspects of the industry's products, and continue to lead the improvement and healthy development of the overall level of the industry.
今年2月，国际电工委员会作为世界上成立最早、最具权威性的国际性电工标准化机构，正式发布了由中国牵头制定的养老机器人国际标准——《互联家庭环境下使用的主动辅助生活机器人性能准则》。该项标准依据老年人生理和行为特点，为各类养老机器人的产品设计、制造、测试和认证等提供基准。这一标准关注当前互联家居背景下中老年人的各方面需求和特征，包括家居生活、健康监测、医疗护理等各个环节，根据老年用户真实需要的辅助支持水平，规范智能养老机器人的功能和性能大类，在实用性、可靠性、无障碍、低能耗、低噪声等基本要求之外，还对紧急情况预警、家属医护通信支持、家务娱乐照护、外出行动辅助、信息数据管理等方面提出了明确的技术要求。
Prior to this, there were a number of relevant industry standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization and other industry organizations. For example, the Safety Standards for Personal Care Robots issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standardize the safety requirements of personal care robots (including elderly care robots), covering safety risk control in the process of design, manufacturing and use. The International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has published two standards, the Standards for Transparency in Autonomous Systems and the Standards for Ethics-Driven Robotics and Automation System Ontologies, which provide norms for transparency and ethics in autonomous systems, including intelligent robots. The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CEC) has published the Standard for Warnings and Information for Medical Electrical Equipment, which provides specifications for the development and functional design of healthcare robots. The formulation and release of these international standards have played a very important role in promoting the development and progress of the world's intelligent elderly care robot industry.
Under the background of the rapid development of embodied intelligence technology, the elderly care robot industry is expanding rapidly around the world, and countries have made significant progress in technology research and development, product application and standardization. In the future, with the further maturity of related technologies and the continuous improvement of standards, intelligent elderly care robots will play a more important role in an aging society and provide higher quality of life and medical services for the elderly. However, the rapid development and application of new technologies will also bring ethical, privacy and regulatory challenges, which requires the joint efforts of international industry organizations, governments, relevant enterprises and society to promote the continuous and healthy development of the elderly care robot industry.
《光明日报》（2025年03月27日 14版）
Source: Guangming Network - "Guangming Daily"