CareBot™
The Family Care and Personal Assistance Robot
GeckoSystems is dedicated to providing Mobile Service Robots (MSR)s to families that need assistance with their elderly loved ones. We've named this specialized MSR the CareBot and it is also ideal for keeping an eye on active children or monitoring a disabled family member.
​
The CareBot was the first eldercare assistance robot to be tested in an actual home environment. Feedback concerning the need for caregiver assistance during these trials and marketing studies done by GeckoSystems indicate that the CareBot should be readily accepted.
How CareBot Works
A CareBot MSR is built on a BaseBot™ using GeckoNav™, GeckoChat™, and GeckoTrak™ to perform timely and cost effective duties for care givers to better care for their care receivers. GeckoZap™ is used by the support personnel to perform maintenance on the CareBot. The individual assistance discussion can be accessed here.
​
GeckoNav, GeckoChat and GeckoTrak are primary GeckoSavants. GeckoNav is responsible for all fully autonomous maneuvering, such as avoiding dynamic and/or static obstacles, running errands and patrolling. GeckoChat is responsible for interaction with the care-receiver such as answering questions, assisting with daily routines and reminders, and responding to other verbal commands. GeckoTrak, which is mostly transparent to the user, enables the CareBot to maintain proximity to the care receiver using sensor fusion. The CareBot is an Internet appliance that is accessible for remote video/audio monitoring and telepresence.
​
The elderly frequently endure loneliness and/or loss of independence when living in nursing homes or other assisted living facilities. This new type of remote medical monitoring system, a CareBot, will postpone, if not eliminate that trauma to them. Their families can now better manage the difficult decisions regarding the independence they allow their now dependent parent while minimizing the risk the adult care giver is willing to assume for a prudent level of independence for their now reliant parent.
​
Like an automobile, mobile robots are made from steel, aluminum, plastic, and electronics, yet with ten to twenty times the amount of software running. The CareBot has an aluminum frame, plastic shroud, two independently driven wheels, multiple sensor systems, microprocessors, and several onboard computers connected in a local area network (LAN).
Benefits for the Elderly and the Entire Family
Cost Effective Monitoring
Elderly people in nursing homes receive attention from nurses nine minutes per day on average. These places are expensive ($45,000 to $60,000 per year) and not always easy or convenient for family members to physically visit. There is a crisis for cost effective assistance. Concern for their parents is one of the main reasons for adult children to purchase an elder care enabled CareBot MSR. It will monitor the care receiver constantly, and it is only a one-time cost that eventually pays for itself.
Virtual Visits
Working parents of all ages seek assistance in caring for their children as a result of working long hours, and having to commute to and from their workplace. The ability to virtually visit their children from work, during travel, or anywhere they have Internet access is now possible. Working mothers and fathers can watch their children routinely in a window on their computer monitors while at work.
Automatic Reminders
The CareBot MSR reminds the care receiver to take medication, reminds them that family is coming over soon (or not at all), and it can alert them when there are unexpected visitors, or if intruders are present. It will also keep track of doctor's visits.
Companionship
The CareBot MSR is a new kind of companion that always stays close to the care receiver, enabling family and friends to care for them from afar. It will hold various levels of conversation with the care receiver. The personality, voice, and phrases can be customized.
Automatic Emergency Notification
The CareBot MSR notifies designated caregivers when a potentially harmful event has occurred, such as a fall, fire in the home, or the person has simply not been found by the CareBot for too long. It responds to calls for help. It can call 911 or, before resorting to 911, work its way through a list of designated emergency contacts.
Learn More...
Return on Investment — A Wise Family Decision
The CareBot will provide a positive ROI for families in anywhere from a few days, (Scenario 1) to a little over two months in other cases (Scenario 2), and probably within a year for almost all purchasers (Scenario 3).
Scenario 1
Patient comes home after major surgery or perhaps a heart attack and an unexpected complication or relapse occurs. The patient can go home, where they're most comfortable, but regular visual monitoring by family memebers and vital sign monitoring reported directly to a physician or hospital detects the problem quickly. The patient is readmitted before the situation becomes critical. Patient is stabilized in ER and released or a hospital stay of weeks is shortened to a few days.
Scenario 2
Elder is at home or staying with family. Mental or physical condition becomes such that they are afraid to leave them at home for even a few minutes without having someone there. Stress becomes too much and family considers putting them in a nursing home but the cost is $70,000 per year (actual average cost used).
​
The CareBot permits the caregiver to go to the store, take the kids to soccer, parents can go out to dinner, and stress is relieved without putting the elder in a nursing home. This can be done via a webcam on the CareBot. The care receiver is safer, happier, and healthier, the family doesn't feel guilty, and the CareBot pays for itself in about nine weeks.
Scenario 3
Elder is living at home, happy, relatively healthy and has an active social life. Elder does have a problem with high blood pressure though, there is a history of stokes in the family, and does not always remember to take their medicine. The Elder worries about intruders even though they live in a safe neighborhood.
​
The closest child is 50 miles away, others are hundreds or thousands of miles away. The first child has to spend a lot of time checking in on Mom and Pop, he feels obligated and deep down he is angry with the other kids because they don't seem to take enough responsibility. Hiring live in help would cost the family $3-500 per week, hiring someone in the neighborhood to check in on them frequently would be $500 a month and there would still be the worry that they might take advantage of their loved ones or something would happen between "check in" times.
​
If the three of them chip in chip in $4000 apiece for a CareBot. All three can check in on the Mom and Pop frequently and the one who lives 50 miles away no longer feels like he has all the responsibility.
Conclusion
The CareBot makes sure medicine is taken on schedule; it connects to family via Skype with video calls when needed or when one of them gets upset or confused. If either of them thinks they hear something in the middle of the night, the CareBot can do an infrared scan inside the house and out into the yard to check for intruders; automatically alerting police if someone is spotted inside designated perimeter. If Pop has become too agitated and his ticker starts working overtime the CareBot will contact, pre-designated family members or if the signs are sever enough, the paramedics are called.
​
At $1200 per month saved (the cost of the cheapest live in help) the CareBot pays for itself in ten months even if the Elder continues to be independent and happy at home.
​
Conclusion: Once people start to understand how a CareBot is used and insurance companies figure out how much they will save, sales will accelerate dramatically due to pent up demand.
In Home Trials
Developed Using Data From the World's First in Home Trials of an Eldercare Mobile Service Robot
GeckoSystems has been performing in-home trials of elder care personal assistance robots since 2002. These trials have made a valuable contribution to the development and design of the CareBot. Input from care givers and the responses of elderly loved ones clearly demonstrates that next-generation practical, personal companion robots have the ability to help caregivers perform critical eldercare monitoring and extend the time that people can live independently. The CareBot home care robot is capable of assisting in senior care in a variety of real-life situations, such as frequent welfare checks, on-time medication reminders, and virtual visits by family members that give a sense of safety, security, and most of all, being reminded that they are a loved and cherished member of the family.
The video above shows the very first in home trial of the CareBot in 2002. The participants were Anna, a grandmother with Alzheimer's, and Bobbi, the caregiving daughter. This trial was designed to tell GeckoSystems developers if the CareBot was ready to market. The cooperation of this family gave them important information on the expectations and concerns of the caregivers and the interaction between the CareBot and the care receiver.
The video conferencing capablity was well received, the family felt that frequent visual check-ins would be reassuring. They also believed that out of state relatives would find this feature valuable for virtual visits. The principal caregiver believed that if they were able to purchase a CareBot she would be able to let her mother stay in her own home longer while still remaining safe.
CareBot developers learned that verbal interaction, an event scheduler, and following capability needed to be added to the current design in order to create a finished, marketable product. This is the sort of information the Alpha trial was designed to provide.
​
Starting at five minutes into the video the anatomy of the robot is discussed, including the emphasis on off the shelf components in order to keep the CareBot affordable. The vacuum cleaner shown in the video would have been a practical bonus, but it reduced the CareBot's battery life too much.
This video is compiled from footage shot for a Discovery Channel feature released in 2005. In response to the first trials, the GeckoSystems team has added GeckoChat and GeckoScheduler (see How the CareBot Works) to the sensor fusion platform of GeckoNav (now being marketed as SafePath™). The CareBot was also given the ability to follow the care receiver with a dedicated infrared sensor.
During this trial the R&D team unexpectedly learned that the CareBot needed voice amplification and volume control; they also realized that the interface for GeckoScheduler needed to be more user friendly.
Three Trial Videos: Following Grandmother
These videos were done in early 2010. They are all from a stationary vantage point showing the CareBot autonomously following a grandmother from her bedroom to the kitchen. Unlike other elder care robots being developed, the CareBot is guided by pure artificial intelligence processed in on board computers.
The robot was in sleep mode before being activated by the grandmother's movement out of the room. It then tracked the grandmother down the hallway and found her in the kitchen.
This is the second run using the same scenario after GeckoSystems engineers made various incremental improvements and added additional sensors. Notice also that the robot is traveling through various lighting conditions that will confuse and disorient other robotic navigation systems. The CareBot moves through a naturally lit bedroom into a darkened hallway and then into an artificially lit kitchen.
​
Additional trials enabled GeckoSystems to upgrade the "sound quality" of GeckoChat so that an elderly person who is hard of hearing can understand the CareBot's synthesized voice. This is important when the CareBot delivers medication reminders, talks about family anecdotes, and expresses valued family behaviors. GeckoScheduler was completely reworked to enhance its flexibility and ease of use. It is now a standalone GeckoSavant instead of being a portion of GeckoChat. GeckoTrak is now more reliable in its ability to automatically—without human intervention—to find and/or follow the designated care receiver. GeckoSuper is now more efficient and timely in its management of the various GeckoSavants under its control.
​
Extensive testing in real life situations enables GeckoSystems to provide safe technology that is ready for the retail market.
This is the same demonstration seen above, but from the CareBot's point of view.
​
During elder care trials, GeckoSystems uses multiple layers of sensors and sensor systems to achieve what some describe as "actionable situational awareness." For example our CareBots are capable of powering down unnecessary systems to lengthen battery life while grandma sleeps, and then power back up automatically if she were to get out of her bed in the middle of the night. The CareBot "watches over" the care receiver using a scientifically developed fusion of sonar, active infrared, passive infrared, etc. to enable the CareBot to be aware of the care receiver's movements such that GeckoTrak can guide GeckoNav to stay proximate to grandma such that GeckoChat can have verbal interaction with her. The GeckoSuper then determines whether and/or when to automatically notify the caregiver that grandma is up and about at 2:30AM and may need the care giver to look in personally, by video camera or with a physical visit.
Safety is Paramount
