From taking care of the laundry to maintaining the lawn, your household chores will one day all be taken care of by robots. As we get older, things that we saw as simple to complete becomes harder. Maintaining independence and proper care at the same time becomes hard to balance for many old folks. In an attempt to ease these burdens for senior citizens, researchers are looking to create a fairy-godmother like drones. According to the developers, such technology is closer to becoming reality than you may think.
Following receiving a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, roboticist Naira Hovakimyanis is preparing the drones to be used in homes by putting them to test with performing common tasks, like retrieving a medicine bottle from a different room. Hovakimyan refers to the fairy-godmother drones as ‘Bibbidi Bobbidi Bots.’ Hovakimyan is receiving help from researchers at the Nicer Robotics lab at the University of Illinois to make drones seem more approachable.
Though today’s elders may not readily accept these new methods, Hovakimyan thinks that the future generation of elders, including herself, will be much open to technological development.
“Within the next 15 years I am going to be the one in need of technology, and if I start the development today and grow with the technology development, I will certainly be receptive to it,” she wrote to Dailymail.com
“It is with this understanding that we are developing the technology today.”
