Lacking health workers, Germany taps robots for elder care
The white-colored humanoid "Garmi" does not look much different from a typical robot—it stands on a platform with wheels and is equipped with a black screen on which two blue circles acting as eyes are attached.
But retired German doctor Guenter Steinebach, 78, said, "For me, this robot is a dream."
Not only is Garmi able to perform diagnostics on patients, it can also provide care and treatment for them. Or at least, that is the plan.
Garmi is a product of a new sector called geriatronics, a discipline that taps advanced technologies like robotics, IT and 3D technology for geriatrics, gerontology and nursing.
About a dozen scientists built Garmi with the help of medical practitioners like Steinebach at the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence.
Part of the Technical University of Munich, the institute based its unit specializing in geriatronics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a ski resort that is home to one of the highest proportion of elderly people in Germany.
Europe's most populous country is itself one of the world's most rapidly aging societies.
With the number of people needing care growing quickly and an estimated 670,000 caregiver posts to go unfilled in Germany by 2050, the researchers are racing to conceive robots that can take over some of the tasks carried out today by nurses, caregivers and doctors.
Garmi is a product of a new sector called geriatronics, which taps advanced technologies for geriatrics, gerontology and nursing.