Helping hands: Could robots solve aged-care crisis?

Photo: RNZ / Philippa Tolley

The global population is ageing, and New Zealand is no exception. Almost 20 percent of Kiwis are projected to be 65 or older by 2028, and like many other countries around the world, Aotearoa faces a shortage of healthcare and care workers to look after the elderly.

Could robots with the ability to perform everyday personal and household tasks help meet some of those needs?

Robots have some distinct advantages, robot designer Rich Walker tells Mihingarangi Forbes, speaking from London - but there's some challenges and hurdles to overcome, and some big ethical considerations.

As the technology evolves, do we need to start asking ourselves how far we want it to go?

Walker is director of Shadow Robot, a UK company specialising in the design and manufacture of robotic hands. He is also an industry advocate for the ethical use of robotic technology.

Walker has played with robotics since being introduced to small robots at a computer camp as a child, where he tried to use them to move chess pieces around.

"I think if you grew up with science fiction, robots are a kind of natural lure, there's a whole idea that you could build something that could be a companion, an assistant, a helper - a fun character to have in your life," he says. "And then you find engineering, and you discover that it's nothing like that, but it's a lot more interesting in some ways."

What robots can and can't easily accomplish are widely misunderstood, because we look at it through our assumptions they will be able to behave like a human body.

Photo: Charles Gervais

In Japan, robots have been used in aged care facilities for more than a decade.