A Robot Is Helping an Ailing Couple Stay in Their Home. Are More to Come for an Aging Population?
The $30,000 robot helps Brian Marquis with meals, medicine reminders and hygiene prompts as New Hampshire families struggle to find home care aides.
- In Durham, New Hampshire, a Stretch 4 robot named Robbie provides daily assistance to 59-year-old Brian Marquis, who lives with a traumatic brain injury, managing exercise routines and medication reminders.
- The United States faces a severe shortage of home care aides due to high turnover and demanding workloads as baby boomers age, prompting Brenda Marquis, 59, to seek robotic support for her husband.
- CEO Aaron Edsinger of Hello Robot, a former director of robotics at Google, designed the nearly $30,000 unit for practical utility rather than humanoid appearance, noting "if you show up looking like a humanoid, that expectation's going to be set so high, it's going to be very hard to do."
- University of New Hampshire professor Momotaz Begum piloted the robot with National Institute of Aging funding, finding that focus groups prioritized functionality despite initially describing the device as looking like a 'coat hanger.'
- Robbie allows Brenda to leave the house for grocery shopping without fearing for her husband's safety, while Brian admitted the technology set him free by helping him manage daily hygiene tasks he previously struggled with independently.
12 Articles
12 Articles
A robot is helping an ailing couple stay in their home. Are more to come for an aging population?
The decades-long quest to build home robots that are both helpful and lifelike — spurred on by fictional machines like "The Jetsons'" humanoid maid Rosie — is still mostly a pipe dream, but some developers are getting closer
The elderly and injured are using robots as home care support to help them get around their home
After outliving Booker T. Bones, their second service dog, Brenda and Brian Marquis still needed help with some of the more difficult parts of daily life. They found Robbie, a robot that rolls out of a hallway into their living room several times a day. “Do you want to exercise now? Please answer yes or no,” the caregiver robot asks 59-year-old Brian Marquis, who has been living with a traumatic brain injury since a 2012 car crash. “Yes,” he res…
As the U.S. faces a worsening shortage of care for the elderly, can robots fill the gap?
After outliving Booker T. Bones, their second service dog, Brenda and Brian Marquis still needed help with some of the more difficult parts of daily life.They found Robbie, a robot that rolls out of a hallway into their living room several times a day.“Do you want to exercise now? Please answer yes or no,” the caregiver robot asks 59-year-old Brian Marquis, who has been living with a traumatic brain injury since a 2012 car crash.“Yes,” he respon…
Googly-eyed robot gives dementia-stricken husband his freedom back
The decades-long quest to build home robots that are both helpful and lifelike — spurred on by fictional machines like The Jetsons’ humanoid maid Rosie —- is still mostly a pipe dream, but some developers are getting closer
NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
Caregiving robot helps ailing couple stay in their house. Could they replace nursing homes?
After outliving Booker T. Bones, their second service dog, Brenda and Brian Marquis still needed help with some of the more difficult parts of daily life. They found Robbie, a robot that rolls out of a hallway into their living room several times a day. “Do you want to exercise now? Please answer yes or no,” the caregiver robot asks 59-year-old Brian Marquis, who has been living with a traumatic brain injury since a 2012 car crash. “Yes,” he res…
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