Success Stories

Second phase of the “5G Emotional Robot” project of the Mobile World Capital: from 10 to 100 people

Partners: 5G Barcelona, MWCapital, Grup Saltó,
Vodafone Business and Barcelona City Council
Sector
: Health and Social

1. The problem

In a city like Barcelona there are +90,000 people over 65 who live alone and the forecast is that this figure will increase. According to the WHO, between 2000 and 2050 the proportion of the planet’s population over 60 years of age will double from 605 million to 2 billion.

The public care system for our elderly is saturated with long waiting lists in residences and insufficient resources in socio-health personnel.

2. The challenge

A technological solution to provide care to the elderly without having to stop living at home, which at the same time allows optimizing management with caregivers and improving communication with them and their families.

A social robot that lives with the elderly person and communicates with him or her through voice and helps him or her with reminders and proposals in his or her day-to-day life.

3. The proposal

A social robot that lives with the elderly person and communicates with him or her through voice and helps him or her with reminders and proposals in his or her day-to-day life. The robot is capable of moving, looking for the person, recognizing them and giving them conversation and company according to their interests.

4. A proposal awarded by the MWC Foundation: the step to real implementation

During 2021 a test has been launched with real users who live with the robot in the city of Barcelona.

The selected user profile has been, on average, a 79-year-old person.

The test has been developed with the collaboration of the Barcelona City Council, in the Area of Social Rights.

5. Users report positive feedback, participate in the prototype co-creation process and highlight that it gives them:

Security: notifying caregivers and relatives in times of emergency

Entertainment: proposals for nearby activities, chats with relatives via video call…

Autonomy: receiving information on how to carry out a task or how to get to a place, etc.

6. The results

They show that the capabilities of robots can improve aspects of people’s quality of life, being complementary to the personal services they may receive.

Consequently, the Barcelona City Council includes the ARI social robot as one of the projects of the ‘Mesura de Govern d’Innovació Social (2021-2023)’ that is currently active.

7. The 5G Emotional Robot project begins its second phase

This year 2022 the project goes from 10 to 100 users. In this way, we bring technology closer to many more homes, demonstrating that it facilitates the day-to-day life of the elderly.