Do Care robots make an advance on telecare? Presence, integration and "empathy"

Tom Sorrell (University of Warwick, )

Biography:  Professor Tom Sorell is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at the University of Warwick (UK), and Head of the Interdisciplinary Ethics Research Group there

(http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/ierg/).

Previously, he was John Ferguson Professor of Global Ethics and Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics, University of Birmingham. In 1996-7, he was Faculty Fellow in Ethics at Harvard. Previously he was Co-Director of the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex. He has published widely in philosophy. In bioethics he has written on consumerism and health care markets, insurance, and, with Heather Draper, on patients' responsibilities, telehealth, telecare and care robots. He is a participant in the European care robotics project ACCOMPANY, and advises the robotics projects FROG and EASEL.

Title:  Do Care robots make an advance on telecare? Presence, integration and "empathy"

Synopsis:  In North America, Western Europe, South East Asia and elsewhere, robots are being designed as home-based care companions to less able but competent older people. These robots are expensive and relatively incapable. What, if anything, suits them to be care companions? Perhaps "presence" in a sense to be explained; perhaps "presence" plus the integration of functions otherwise requiring many machines, robotic and otherwise. Perhaps certain allegedly empathic capacities. I cast doubt on all of these suggestions, taking as my example of a care robot the platform used in the European Commission funded project, ACCOMPANY (http://accompanyproject.eu/). I argue for a mix of telecare technology and very simple robots--far simpler than Care-o-bots. Telecare is in principle no worse ethically than a care-robot, is much cheaper and more adaptable than robots to a wide variety of housing, and is already in operation in many countries.  Although telecare is sometimes criticized as intrusive, this is usually based on exaggeration.