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BriefROBOTICS

Soft Elderly Care Robot SoftCare Enters Nursing Home Trials: Flexible Tactile Technology Alleviates Elderly Robot Anxiety

SoftBank Robotics and Toyota's jointly developed soft care robot SoftCare launched a pilot program in 10 Tokyo nursing homes, with its flexible silicone exterior and tactile sensors enabling safe assistance with repositioning, supporting, and feeding elderly residents.

On April 1, SoftBank Robotics and Toyota's jointly developed soft care robot SoftCare launched a 6-month pilot program in 10 nursing homes across Tokyo. SoftCare features a flexible silicone exterior and distributed tactile sensor array that can sense contact force and automatically adjust — maximum contact pressure when assisting elderly residents to turn is controlled within 5N, well below human tissue pain thresholds.

Japan's population aged 65 and over already accounts for 29.1%, with a shortage of over 300,000 nursing care workers. SoftCare is designed to handle physical care tasks including repositioning, transfer support, and feeding assistance, freeing caregivers to devote more time to emotional companionship and professional care. During the pilot, each nursing home is equipped with 2 SoftCare units supervised by caregivers. SoftBank Robotics stated that after the pilot concludes, they will optimize the design for mass production based on feedback, targeting a price of 3 million yen (approximately $20,000) per unit.