Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) could become indispensable in caring for the growing population of elderly citizens in the near future.

IIIM and CMLab’s CoCoMaps project is about endowing robots with the ability to collaborate with humans and communicate using natural dialogue and could render them capable of performing jobs formerly only in the domain of humans. The project group is currently in active discussion with several companies interested in primarily voice-based infrastructures for elderly care. When ready, the platform will support applications where dialogue can replace complex user interface menus.

Many people, especially the older generation, are not fully conversant with technology and placing traditional gadgets into their homes would not be feasible from a social or a commercial point of view. However, adding a smart and natural voice system to open the door for more social interaction with both family, friends and new acquaintances while allowing them to discuss the weather or which pills they took at lunchtime with no buttons or intimidating login screens would be vastly more efficient. If they have a fall they can call for help, and if they become non-responsive the care team could be summoned for a check-up – and future versions can offer greater individual behavioral learning to assess if a medical review should be scheduled.

The technology can be utilized in several other ways such as in factories. This could entail endowing robots with better skills to co-ordinate with their surroundings, in search and rescue operations, getting to victims in dangerous scenarios, and even in entertainment.

The CoCoMaps project will be exhibited at the Hannover Messe in Germany next week, the 24-26 April, 2017.