Brenda and Brian Marquis, who previously relied on service dogs for daily assistance, now get help from Robbie — a robot that rolls into their living room several times a day to guide exercise sessions. The machine asks Brian, who has a traumatic brain injury, if he wants to work out, then leads him through an afternoon routine. It offers a rare look at a caregiver robot functioning in a real home.
The robot is controlled remotely by a laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, with funding from the National Institute of Aging. The current system is not fully autonomous — it depends on human operators behind the scenes — but demonstrates how robotics might augment human caregiving for elderly and disabled individuals.
This experiment unfolds against a stark backdrop: the oldest baby boomers turn 80 this year, and the U.S. home care aide shortage is worsening. Low wages, high turnover, and demanding workloads have left many families without affordable human help. While fictional machines like Rosie the Robot on The Jetsons have long fueled dreams of a robotic helper, building a lifelike, truly autonomous home robot remains elusive.
Yet the Marquis family's experience suggests one possible pathway: telepresence robots that let caregivers deliver services remotely. Such systems could scale more quickly than fully autonomous machines and might provide a bridge between today's workforce crisis and tomorrow's technology. The key question is whether funding and infrastructure will follow these early pilots.
Robbie's googly-eyed digital face and exercise prompts may seem rudimentary, but for the Marquis household, the robot has filled a real void. As the population ages and the care gap widens, even imperfect robotic assistance could become a lifeline for many families.