Exoskeleton robots assist elderly people with leg and foot difficulties in walking, hand function rehabilitation training all-in-one machines accurately guide patients to restore grip ability, and intelligent elderly care robots can use AI voice interaction to alleviate the loneliness of elderly people living alone... A large number of intelligent elderly care robot products recently appeared in the first Beijing Intelligent Health Care Robot Application Competition, not only outlining a vivid picture of future smart elderly care, but also indicating the direction of industry development. Just like the rapidly developing artificial intelligence industry, various elderly care robots are also equipped with AI brains, attempting to liberate manpower and provide care with more comprehensive functions and warm and thoughtful services. Beijing Youth Daily reporters visited multiple companies and found that China's intelligent health care robots are still in their infancy, including pain points such as the usage habits of the elderly, cost control issues for enterprises, and insufficient data foundation for intelligence. Only in this way can we truly connect the last link of product delivery. Pain point one: How can elderly people overcome the digital divide and develop usage habits? Facing the dazzling array of elderly care robot products, the key is to enable the elderly to get started using them. Lv Zeping, the director of the affiliated rehabilitation hospital of the National Rehabilitation Assistive Equipment Research Center, has a lot of feelings. He stated that the interaction design of elderly care robots is the core issue. Some intelligent products are developed based on the logic of normal human use, without fully considering the complexity of cognitive decline in the elderly population. Elderly people generally suffer from perceptual degradation, such as hearing, vision, touch, and proprioceptive disorders, which lead to difficulties in interacting with devices. Many robots have complex operations, small screens, and unfriendly feedback mechanisms, exacerbating the "digital divide" between the elderly and robots. On the user side, elderly people have limited acceptance of intelligent robots, and their thinking and usage habits need to be cultivated. Wang Zhixin, Deputy General Manager of Beijing Lianxun Security Technology Co., Ltd., stated that during the promotion, it was found that some elderly people would turn off their devices based on their energy-saving habits. Sun Bo, CEO of Beijing Haibaichuan Technology Co., Ltd., also admitted that during the experimental stage of emotional companionship robots, some elderly people have resistance to cold devices, metal appearances, and complex screens, or are afraid or lack trust and dare not touch them. Therefore, we are trying to give robots a real human image, touch, and skin to enhance the realism of interaction. Elderly care robots will also be used in elderly care institutions. As the "gold medal nurse" of Yizhuang Elderly Care Center, Yan Zhixiang admitted that if the new equipment can really improve interaction efficiency while ensuring safety, nurses will actively recommend elderly people to use it, gradually establishing their trust. Pain point 2: How to avoid "working behind closed doors" when there are diverse requirements for matching needs? The core of the wellness scene is' dealing with people '. In reality, the physiological characteristics, emotional needs, and lifestyle habits of the elderly vary greatly, making "what kind of robots to build" and "how to make robots useful" key questions that enterprises need to consider. A reporter from Beiqing Daily found that the technology enterprise teams that have crossed over into the elderly care field are generally young and lack understanding of the actual needs, ideas, and living habits of the elderly. How to penetrate into the elderly population and accurately grasp their needs is the key. Lv Zeping stated that in reality, there are significant individual differences among the elderly, and personalized needs are complex. For example, the needs of patients with lower back pain and those with knee joint disorders are vastly different. But currently, some smart products have redundant functions and combine various functions. In fact, the elderly may only need a small part of what they need and commonly use according to their own needs. The combination of multiple functions results in robots being bulky and costly. Just like smartphones, they may have hundreds or thousands of functions, but the elderly may only use 5 of them frequently. In the future, more targeted and personalized products may be developed As a caregiver, Yan Zhixiang also has his own observations: "Elderly care robots are updated and iterated every year. Some robot technologies are very advanced, but in fact, some functions are designed for the 'imagined elderly'. Taking the elderly care institution I am in as an example, most of the residents are elderly, and their physiological functions such as cognition, hearing, and mobility are generally declining. However, some elderly care robots on the market now require instructions from the elderly to perform the next step, but disabled and dementia elderly people find it difficult to complete this process smoothly. If the robot can only wait for instructions, its functions can only stay in theory. Pain point three: How to consolidate the data foundation of application scenarios due to data scarcity? To make elderly care robots more intelligent, massive amounts of data are key. A reporter from Beiqing Daily found in an interview that data issues are a major challenge faced by enterprises during the research and development stage. The scarcity of application data in the real world does indeed constrain businesses. At present, many industry-leading technology companies across the country have been able to collect massive databases, connecting the entire data ecosystem. However, for early-stage health care robot companies, the data collected in specific scenarios such as nursing homes and communities is very limited. We hope to open source and share the public service data of some leading enterprises after desensitization in the future, break down data barriers between enterprises, help us vertical track enterprises improve software, and also help reduce the research and development costs of the entire industry and accelerate technological iteration, "said Sun Bo. The data acquisition method of humanoid robots also has its own particularities. Ji Junjie, an algorithm expert at the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, also mentioned that unlike large models that can find existing databases to instill and train, embodied intelligence relies mainly on data from the operation of robots and data generated by human operation of robots. Currently, it can only be operated and collected in specific scenarios by personnel carrying machines. However, there are not many opportunities for teams to enter elderly homes or nursing homes. In addition, security and privacy protection issues related to data are also a key concern for many elderly people and their children, and technology companies need to reinforce the "security lock" for elderly care robots. Pain point four: How to improve accessibility due to high prices and high costs? An elderly person who participated in the experience told a reporter from Beiqing Daily that current elderly care robots are generally "rough" and have a larger body shape. When placed at home, they not only take up space, but also have relatively single functions. The key is the high price, such as some smart nursing beds, which are actually more suitable for nursing homes or medical institutions and difficult to enter ordinary households. According to a visit by a reporter from Beiqing Daily, some of the robots and intelligent accessories participating in the competition were cheap, ranging from a few thousand yuan to just over ten thousand yuan. However, most of the robot products were priced in tens of thousands of yuan, with some more technologically advanced robots selling for hundreds of thousands of yuan. The high price is the biggest challenge for elderly care robots to enter ordinary households. A team leader revealed that in terms of cost structure, the hardware cost of current health care robots is still at a high level. For example, the cost of a single robotic arm is about 50000 yuan, while the cost of a dual robotic arm configuration can reach 100000 yuan. If special functions such as waterproofing are added, the cost of a single robotic arm can rise to 500000 yuan, and the cost of a complete set of equipment can easily exceed one million yuan. This price level far exceeds the purchasing power of ordinary households, so in the short term, the market still relies heavily on institutional demand. In addition, the diverse needs of the elderly make personalized and customized production and large-scale production a contradiction that urgently needs to be resolved. Yang Yongtao, Deputy General Manager of Beijing Daai Robot Technology Co., Ltd., admitted that the prices of many elderly care robot products are still high. Mainly because many products are still in the research and development stage, the research and development costs, personnel costs, and material costs are not low, especially if they want to do it in the long run, companies will not rashly lower their standards. In the future, if demand expands and mass production is achieved, I believe that costs will soon decrease