The population in Germany are getting older and older. With increasing life expectancy, the number of age-related diseases such as dementia is also increasing. Rural regions are particularly affected by this development. People of working age moving out of the area and the shortage of care workers are aggravating the care situation for the steadily growing group of older people in need of care. In light of these more difficult general conditions, the joint project RoboLand of Fulda University of Applied Sciences and Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences is aimed at developing solutions for supporting and accompanying people with dementia at home in the future.

The research project focuses on telepresence robots, which are partly self-propelled and partly remote-controlled robots equipped with a display, microphone and webcam. These robots enable the personal presence of a carer via video transmission. Under the direction of Helma M. Bleses (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) and Erwin Praßler (Bonn-Rhein Sieg University of Applied Sciences), research is being conducted in two underdeveloped regions in Hesse to find out whether and in which situations telepresence robots are used at home by people with dementia and their relatives. The use of telepresence robots should serve to maintain self-determination, mobility and social participation. In addition, the project will investigate to what extent these systems can help ease the burden of family carers.

The project involves people in different stages of dementia who live at home and their caring relatives, as well as informal and formal network stakeholders such as nursing services and doctors. The use of telepresence robots in the domestic environment will then be investigated in four coordinated field trials. Requirements for the further technical development of telepresence robotics for people with dementia, their caring relatives and the network members will then be derived based on the results.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the research project with about 800,000 euros within the framework of the SILQUA-FH funding line as part of the Research at Universities of Applied Sciences programme.