Assistance robot Lio has been working for the PUR-Project at the Caritas elderly care home St. Marienhaus in Constance for about six weeks now. He has settled in quite well now and has also made some friends.
Maria Wittek is 97 years old and finds Lio wonderful. For example, Lio brings her a bottle of water or talks to her about the weather. At first she was a little afraid of him because of his strangeness, but he was “so pretty that you can fall in love”.
Andreas Hoffmann, Chairman of Caritas Konstanz, was aware that there will be difficulties in acceptance. His hope was that those fears would go away with Lio actually being present and helpful.
The project is so far unique in Germany. Nowhere else would there be a robot that would be used as a nursing assistant. Lio can not assist with every task yet, but he is like a new employee in the learning phase. The main tasks performed by Lio every day are bringing drinks and encouraging people to do gymnastics. However, patience is required until Lio can do other things to relieve the nursing staff so that they have more time for the residents.
The most important goal has already been achieved – Lio brings a lot of joy to the Marienhaus and is very popular.
