The Generalitat will allocate 5.43 million euros of Next Generation EU funds to the purchase of a thousand robots to alleviate the unwanted loneliness of older people. These will be new units of the ARI (intelligent robotic assistant) devices like those that began to be distributed in 2019 in homes in the Catalan capital, where life expectancy is 83.8 years and three in ten are over 75 years they live alone.
The Next Generation EU funds are the European Union's response to the coronavirus crisis and plan to distribute credits worth 750 billion euros to member countries until 2026. The objective is, in addition to healing the wounds of the pandemic, to promote economic cohesion and supporting the ecological and digital transition. Knowing what this aid is used for allows us to x-ray the reality of a country.
The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and the Minister of Social Rights, Carles Campuzano, detailed this Friday at the Born Center of Culture and Memory the destination of more than 375 million euros, with which 765 social projects will be promoted. The purpose, the president and the councilor have explained, is to “improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable groups.” Two of these groups stand out above all the others…
These are the elderly (especially if they experience unwanted loneliness) and minors (especially if they are or have been victims of sexual abuse). For the former, funds will be allocated for the construction, renovation or improvement of residences, as well as tools to break their digital isolation. And for the latter, seven new barnahus (in Tortosa, Mataró, Terrassa, Manresa, La Seu d'Urgell, Lleida and Tarragona).
Barnahus centers (children's home in Icelandic, because they were launched in that country for the first time) represent a step forward in the treatment of childhood and adolescent victims of sexual violence. These premises have a “friendly appearance” and psychosocial teams that provide a single multidisciplinary response to prevent victims from having to navigate the labyrinth of the police station, the court, the medical center…
But one of the most striking issues will be “the deployment of the ARI robotic assistant.” The thousand planned units have “a wide range of gestures and multimodal expressive behaviors that make them the ideal social robot for perception, cognition, navigation and interaction between person and machine.” That is, they are not just a voice that reminds users to take the pill.
The new units will allow the project to be expanded in the city of Barcelona, where it was launched four years ago with good results, while its distribution will begin in the rest of Catalonia. For now, this supra-municipal and decentralized development will be modest: 200 robots, transferred by Barcelona City Council to Drets Socials to find homes for them in the rest of the Catalan regions.
It is expected that more than 105,000 residents outside the Catalan capital will be users of the telecare service in 2025. And these people are ideal candidates for an ARI. These machines only have one problem: they are a complement, a help, but those who experience unwanted loneliness need to break their digital... and social isolation. And that is also what a good part of the Next Generation funds are allocated to.
The first ARI, two spans long, looked like a mechanical stuffed animal with little arms. Its appearance was so endearing that it could arouse tenderness among its users and make them forget that it is a machine. The following units are one meter and 12 kilos in weight, with a more functional appearance. One of these ARI II is the one that its creator, Jaume Saltó, presented today before President Aragonès and a packed Born auditorium.
The functions, however, will not change. In addition to being able to do the same things as other conventional assistants (read the news, turn on the radio, play music...), an ARI can ask its user how they are, remind them of medication or a family anniversary. It also checks for you regularly and if it detects any problems, such as a fall or fainting, you can notify emergency services or a relative via remote control.
Jaume Saltó referred to his creation as “a shell”, but his users, whom he also helps to make video calls, establish emotional bonds with the machine. The presentation of the robot (“intelligent robotic assistant,” he would say) was just one of the novelties of this “historic day,” as President Aragonès and Minister Campuzano described it, in relation to “the largest social investment ever made in Catalonia.” ” .
The focus will be on children, the elderly, people with disabilities, people with mental health problems or the homeless. The idea is to escape welfare and promote “personal autonomy” in collaboration with public administrations and city councils, social entities, universities, companies and research centers. A total of 34 million euros will finance 180 projects for personal care technology. ARI will play a key role in this chapter.
