SCOTS with mobility issues could soon receive a helping hand in the form of assisted-living robots.
Welcoming visitors to the home, turning the oven off and fetching reading glasses are just some of the tasks being tackled by prototype machines.
Over the last few years, researchers have been developing the robots with a view to helping older or disabled people within a care setting.
It is hoped the advancements can improve the quality of life for many of those in Scotland.
With the refining of the technology continuing apace, Europe’s most advanced assisted-living robots were showcased during an international tournament at Heriot-Watt University, last week.
Academics from across the continent battled it out in the European Robotics League Service Robot Challenge (ERL).
The competition took place in the University’s custom-built, 60-square-metre, real-life living laboratory, with researchers testing robots which could revolutionise the healthcare and social care sectors.
The universities used the event to evaluate the performance of the robots in a home setting, and to further enhance the important research.
Dr Mauro Dragone, assistant professor at the school of engineering and physical sciences, said: “Robotic competitions such as the ERL offer a unique opportunity to break down real-work challenges into a competition similar to the UEFA Champions League.
“This is exciting for robotics scientists, the industry and the general public, alike.
“This tournament is the ideal way to compare and evaluate the performance of different robotic systems of service robots.
"Robots are set to revolutionise our economy and society over the next 20 years as they start to work for us and beside us, assisting us and interacting with us."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here