Item 1 of 6 AIREC, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven humanoid robot, demonstrates a manoeuvre for changing diapers or preventing bedsores with a researcher at Waseda University’s laboratory in Tokyo, Japan February 17, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
[1/6] AIREC, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven humanoid robot, demonstrates a manoeuvre for changing diapers or preventing bedsores with a researcher at Waseda University’s laboratory in Tokyo, Japan February 17, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Summary
AI-driven robots being developed for future aged care
Japan’s ageing population faces shortage of care workers
Robot carers raise safety issues with elderly
AI-driven robot nurses will initially be costly
TOKYO, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Recently in Tokyo an AI-driven robot leaned over a man lying on his back and gently put a hand on his knee and another on a shoulder and rolled him onto his side — a manoeuvre used to change diapers or prevent bedsores in the elderly.
The 150-kg (330 lb) artificial intelligence-driven humanoid robot called AIREC is a prototype future "caregiver" for Japan’s rapidly ageing population and chronic shortage of aged-care workers.
"Given our highly advanced ageing society and declining births, we will be needing robots’ support for medical and elderly care, and in our daily lives," said Shigeki Sugano, the Waseda University professor leading AIREC’s research with government funding.Japan is the world’s most advanced ageing society with a falling birth rate, dwindling working-age population and restrictive immigration policies. This map depicts the ratio of the population aged 65 and over in 2023 in each country/area of the world. Its "baby boomer" generation, a bulging cohort created by a spike in post-war child births from 1947 to 1949, all turned at least 75 by the end of 2024, exacerbating the severe shortage of aged care workers. This chart depicts the ratio of people in each broad-age group in Japan’s population from 2020-2023 (actual) and 2024-2070 (projection) The number of babies born in 2024 fell for a ninth straight year, by 5% to a record low 720,988, data from Japan’s health ministry showed on Thursday.The nursing sector, meanwhile, is struggling to fill jobs.It […]
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