Its main function is to keep elderly people who live alone company and to remind them about everyday tasks

The robot caregiver and supervisor for keeping elderly people company designed by Group Saltó, Misty II, has already started its trial run with elderly people as part of a pilot project launched by the Barcelona City Council which aims to improve senior citizens’ living conditions through technology. The trial participants live alongside the robot, who keeps them company and reminds them to do daily tasks; it can also respond to various types of inquiries, such as “what’s the weather like?” or questions on general knowledge.

 

Thus, the robot Misty II has been assigned to three social assistance recipients to see how it works in a real environment. The pilot test, whose main purpose is to study to what extent a technological device of this nature can help improve the care received by elderly people living at home by themselves, was supposed to begin in February 2020 in twenty different households. With the pandemic, all these plans were delayed and, at the moment, the robot is being tested in three different homes, although the idea is to expand it, in the next few weeks, to ten other households.

“It is very important because elderly people forget things and its fundamental goal is to remind you about everyday questions, like the medicines you have to take or what time to go to bed”, relates Margarita Fernández, aged 75, one of the three pilot test participants who have lived alongside an IRA (intelligent robot assistant) for two months. According to Fernández, “this is the future; what it does, and the way it helps people who find themselves alone, is very interesting”. For Margarita, the experience has been “very positive” and has helped her to “improve [her] rhythm of life”, and she knows it could help other people in similar situations.

Misty II is the care and supervision solution for keeping elderly people or dependents company with robots and wearables which form part of Group Saltó’s SOM platform. SOM operates through a state-of-the-art robotic platform specifically designed to improve the quality of life of elderly people who live by themselves and to facilitate, at the same time, the work of caretakers and professionals from care centres, nursing homes, hospitals, etc.

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