What can, what should robots do in nursing? | World | '
The dog, it is said, is the best friend of man. The second best is already a robot in some nursing homes: There – or rolls – "Pepper" and one, a kind-sized robot with big googly eyes and a touch screen on the chest. He is able to talk to people, he gestures when talking, and when he is listening, his shining eyes signal that he is fully focused on his counterpart. "Paro", also used in nursing, is a robotic seal that responds to strokes with movements and sounds.
Although Pepper and Paro can not compete with screen robots such as "R2-D2" – they are used successfully in everyday care, and with each new development robots in hospitals and nursing homes are likely to become more important. But this is also an area in which ethicists have to clarify many basic questions.
What can machines do?
The German Ethics Council has therefore dedicated its annual meeting to the field of robotics in nursing. "The number of carers will increase dramatically in the future," says Council President Peter Dabrock. "Nursing techniques promise ways out of the impending care crisis.To make this future development is human, we must set the course today in dealing with technology."
Pepper in a hospital in Liege, Belgium
Anja Richert leads the "Cologne Cobots Lab" of the Cologne Technical University. There is also a copy of Pepper there. A full-fledged colleague is not the robot with the googly eyes, explains Richert: "He can answer standard phrases like Alexa, but unlike Alexa there is no huge database behind it." So the robot is not as quick-witted as the smart Amazon loudspeaker that overhears private conversations and keeps learning.
In everyday life Pepper shows museum visitors the way or shows seniors on his display photos. Third party companies could write additional programs, so that Pepper is already in use as a tai-chi teacher. According to Richert, the continuing applications of the learning guy are a "booming business field".
Robots instead of Roberta
An advantage of the sheet metal colleague is his patience where nurses or relatives are not endlessly resilient. "Such a system is emotionally neutral, which does not hurt you if it has to say something 50 times," says Richert. There are studies that have shown that people who have lost their language to find communication so because they feel less stress than a human counterpart.
The robotic seal "Paro" is cuddly; She is not an equal interlocutor
There are situations in which people in need of care may prefer a robot rather than a human counterpart – for example out of shame. Anja Richert reports on a conference where the participants were asked who they would prefer to have themselves washed up as an incontinent man when they got soaked: "Surprisingly, most people were in favor of being washed by a robot."
Maintain and care for
However, there are also limits – the "Robear", developed in Japan, had to experience this in person: many people do not want to be put to bed by a robot teddy bear. "This has been discontinued even in Asia due to the fact that patients obviously did not accept that," says Richert. The skepticism about the technology in Japan is much lower. There, the aging of society is much more advanced than in Germany and the EU, and robots are already taking on more extensive nursing tasks.
Automatic Service: a robot developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Engineering and Automation
Robots are just as safe from mistakes as humans. However, where responsibility is clearly distributed among the nurses, this is new ground for machinery. "All legal attempts to clarify that ended so far with an open result," says Richert. Often discussed here is the example of autonomously driving cars: There, an algorithm could have to weigh in fractions of a second whether the occupants of a car or rather other road users should be protected. Such an algorithm, whether in the car or in the care robot, is by no means neutral, says Richert: "There are certain cultures and mindsets behind it – usually the programmer's." And the question is: Is he then responsible, yes or no ? "
When the robot listens
In some areas, a robot can return self-determination and dignity. But here, too, there is light and shadow, says Richert: "We tend to generate data at every point and to exploit it." A robot that listens to and observes patients also experiences intimacy. "It could happen that I can not get the health insurance plan anymore, because it's clear that I do not take my pills regularly," Richert devises a gloomy scenario that ethicists want to prevent.
One mechanism, which Richert describes, nourishes the hope that such data collectors will not come under care robots: "The market regulates this," says the "Cobots Lab" researcher. "If you are unable to create a product that is accepted in the market, then you have bankrupted your company's money." A robot will only be used if it is a useful addition to the ward – and not a spy or a tormentor or a teddy bear that alienates those in need of care.
First and foremost, robots should complement one another so that caregivers have more time to take care of everything that requires human skills. Anja Richert can hardly imagine a scenario in which a robot even becomes a threat: "If necessary, they have an off button, and you can push the thing aside at any time."
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