THE ranks of older and frail adults are growing rapidly in the developed world, raising alarms about how society will help them take care of themselves in their own homes. Naira Hovakimyan has an idea: drones.The University of Illinois roboticist has received a $1.5m grant from the US National Science Foundation to explore the idea of designing small autonomous drones to perform simple household chores, such as retrieving a bottle of medicine from another room.Hovakimyan acknowledges the idea might seem off-putting to many people, but she believes drones will be safe and will become an everyday fixture in elder care within a decade or two. "I’m convinced that within 20 years, drones will be today’s cellphones," she says.Her research is just one example of many approaches being studied to use technology to help ageing people.Roboticists and doctors predict a new wave of advances in computerised, robotic and internet-connected technologies will be available in coming years to help old...
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