His name is Charlie, and he only wants to help: The humanoid robot with large eyes and a childlike mouth was used for a study in care homes in Schleswig-Holstein. In a three-year pilot phase, researchers were able to show that such mechanical helpers can promote the mental and physical health of care home residents. Charlie is not the only one of his kind: more and more robots are being used in care settings. But their capabilities are – at least for now – limited.
Charlie dances in place, lifting and lowering his arms. Next to him, two elderly women follow the exercises, as seen on the Robust project’s homepage. “Robust” stands for “Robotik-basierte Unterstützung von Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung in stationären Pflegeeinrichtungen.” The study involved Kiel University of Applied Sciences, the Gesellschaft für digitalisierte und nachhaltige Zusammenarbeit Siegen (DNZ), Diakonie Schleswig-Holstein, in whose care homes Charlie and his colleagues could work. In addition, the Ersatzkassenverbände in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia contributed significantly to financing the project.
The app with the movement exercises was the robot’s most frequently used program, followed by a “jukebox” with Schlagers, classical music, and a quiz. At first, some care workers were skeptical, unsure how the Pepper model, which runs on wheels and is the size of a child, would be received by the residents.
But after a short time it became clear that the residents enjoyed their time with Charlie and even benefited measurably: “Charlie and the other robots were able to activate the residents both physically and cognitively. The deployment demonstrably increased well-being,” says Gaby Lenz, Professor of Social Work at Kiel University of Applied Sciences. The robot brought fun, more physical activity, and less loneliness. The involved Diakonie Nord-Nord-Ost raised funds to buy a dedicated own “Charlie” after the pilot phase. A 300-page final report is available online as a handbook for other care homes.
So far, robots are not a solution to the care shortage, but a valuable tool
Robots have long been present in care rooms and hospital corridors – but most do not look as humanoid as the Pepper model “Charlie.” Box-shaped “scrubbing vacuum cleaners” or rolling tray stands, as used in restaurants, can relieve human care workers of cleaning or serving tasks.
They can also operate directly at the bedside: the Japanese “Robear” with a drawn-on bear face weighs 140 kilograms and can lift and carry a person. It does not have grasping hands, its arms are padded instead.
A German project, partly funded by the federal government, is a robot bed that can sit up and thus mobilize a person in need of care. Robots are also used as companions. In Japan, since the 1990s, the mechanical plush seal “Paro” has been in use to provide dementia patients with something to cuddle. “Paro” is now equipped with AI, stores reactions, and can respond individually.
Nevertheless, the capabilities of the mechanical helpers are still too limited to replace human caregivers, says Oliver Bendel, Professor at the Institute for Information Systems at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and author of the book “Pflegeroboter,” in an interview with the trade journal “Demenz-Zeitung.de.” Also, most are prototypes and small runs in operation, with correspondingly high prices.
This discrepancy also brought difficulty to the French company Aldebaran Robotics, which developed “Pepper” and the two-legged humanoid robot “Nao.” Aldebaran was sold to the German United Robotics Group in 2022. In February 2025, the company filed for bankruptcy. Several media reports discuss the implications for the Pepper- or Nao-robots already in use somewhere: if Aldebaran does not renew the software, operation could be affected. In July, the Chinese company Maxvision took a stake in Aldebaran.
So far, the technical colleagues are not a solution to the care shortage, Bendel said. Nevertheless, he sees robots in the medium term as a “valuable tool from which both caregivers and care recipients can benefit.” There is no need to fear them: “At the moment, our image of robots is heavily shaped by science-fiction books and films, and in Europe we tend to perceive them more as a threat. That is very unfortunate,” according to the expert.
