In Guangzhou, an elderly woman over 80 years old carefully puts on a walking exoskeleton robot and easily climbs stairs with the assistance of the equipment. The scenes from science fiction movies are happening in our lives today. Robot elderly care generally refers to a systematic solution that uses robots and embodied intelligence technology to provide elderly people with life assistance, health monitoring, rehabilitation training, emotional companionship, and other services. Its core goal is to fill the gap in human care through technological means, improve the quality of life of the elderly, and reduce social elderly care costs. In addition to walking robots such as skeleton and smart wheelchairs, common elderly care robots also include wearable vital sign monitoring robots, motion function rehabilitation robots, and companion dialogue robots, which can meet the needs of elderly people in various aspects such as life assistance, health monitoring, and emotional companionship. At present, China's population over 60 years old has exceeded 310 million, accounting for 22% of the national population, which means that there is one elderly person in every five people. In this large group, there are approximately 35 million disabled elderly people who require long-term care. On one hand, there is a strong demand for elderly care, while on the other hand, there is a supply of elderly care services that cannot meet the demand. As a result, "robot elderly care" has shifted from an "optional" option to a rigid demand under the wave of silver hair. Faced with the huge market potential and urgent practical needs, efforts are being made from all aspects to accelerate the transition of China's elderly care robot industry from technological verification to large-scale application. At the policy level, in February of this year, the world's first international standard for elderly care robots, led by China, was officially released, providing clear specifications for product safety and aging design. Afterwards, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly deployed the paired research and scenario application pilot work of intelligent elderly care service robots, promoting the application verification and iterative upgrading of related products in scenarios such as homes, communities, and elderly care institutions. The market's enthusiasm for this field is also unprecedentedly high. According to incomplete statistics, there have been over a hundred investment and financing events in the field of smart elderly care from early 2024 to May this year, with investment amounts exceeding billions of yuan. Among them, the financing amount in sub sectors such as exoskeleton robots and rehabilitation robots has increased significantly. Under the trend, "robot elderly care" also faces challenges and hidden concerns. At present, in addition to hardware technology, data shortage and intelligent limitations are the two major development bottlenecks faced by elderly care robots. Although humanoid robots perform songs and dances on the Spring Festival Gala stage, their cognitive level is actually only equivalent to that of a 3-year-old child. When faced with simple instructions such as "put the medicine into the blue box", they still feel confused: they need to understand the correlation between pills, boxes, color concepts, and action logic. In research and development, there is a significant lack of data related to the actual living scenarios of elderly people. It is almost impossible to simulate variables such as randomly placed items, sudden movements, and differences in dialect and accent in the home environment in the laboratory. The cost of obtaining high-quality data is also very high, and the shortage of data directly weakens the reliability of algorithm decision-making, leading to its limitations in intelligence. The high price and imperfect payment mechanism of elderly care robots are another major obstacle to their popularization. The research and development cost of robot products is high, and some core components have not yet been industrialized in China, resulting in high prices. For example, the price of a medical rehabilitation lower limb exoskeleton is generally over 150000 yuan, which may deter the majority of families. The imperfect payment mechanism further exacerbates the cost pressure. Although many governments have introduced subsidy policies, providing subsidies ranging from 1000 to 5000 yuan for specific groups to purchase elderly care robots, it seems like a drop in the bucket. In the future, if the usage fees can be included in the scope of medical insurance payment, or if a rental market can be formed, more disabled elderly people may be able to enjoy this service. When robots deeply intervene in elderly care scenarios, ethical controversies will also be highlighted. The primary issue is the dilemma of emotional authenticity. For example, a Japanese seal type robot has triggered emotional dependence among the elderly population with dementia, and many users firmly believe that it has genuine emotions. This has led many people to question whether the algorithm woven "customized friendship" is a systematic deception of the elderly? The deeper conflict lies in the replacement crisis of family affection. After the introduction of feeding robots in a nursing home in Shanghai, the nursing efficiency has greatly improved. However, some elderly people lamented that "the robotic arm feeding is good, but it still cannot compare to their clumsy daughter". This feedback highlights that the emotional value inherent in caregiving behavior is difficult to replace with technology. In the face of opportunities and challenges, to continuously promote the sustainable development of the elderly care robot industry, it is necessary to build a "triangle" support of technological innovation, institutional design, and ethical framework. Specifically, at the technical level, we will promote the linkage cycle between industry, academia, research, and application. Institutional innovation will focus on optimizing payment mechanisms and building standard systems. At the ethical level, we will further explore the balance between technological innovation and humanistic care, clarify the principle of "assistance rather than substitution" and the concept of "human-machine collaboration", and ensure that technology serves human dignity. The true 'robot elderly care' should be a symbiotic combination of advanced technology and humanistic care. (New Society)