A care robot is a robot deployed in the care, therapy, or social companionship of elderly, sick, or lonely persons. In several countries (Japan, the USA, and South Korea, among others), specific systems have been approved as medical devices for the treatment of dementia since the late 2000s. The care robot can relieve physically heavy labor or mitigate the effects of loneliness — yet it replaces no personal attention.
Two Basic Types
Social companion robots (social interaction, conversation, reminders, presence):
- Therapeutic robots in animal form (e.g., the shape of a seal, ca. 60 cm) as approved medical devices for the treatment of dementia — in the price range of ca. 6,000 USD, deployed in nursing homes worldwide.
- Voice-assistance systems for seniors living alone — in a pilot study by a U.S. agency for the elderly with around 800 participants, a significant reduction in reported loneliness was measured (price point ca. 250 USD plus a monthly usage fee).
- Plush-figure-shaped companion robots, deployed in five-figure numbers in single-person households, particularly in South Korea.
- Newly financed start-up systems from the Anglo-American sphere (several seed rounds 2024–2026 in the double-digit million-USD range).
Care-assistance robots (physical assistance):
- Large-format transfer robots from Japanese research institutions (a development line since 2009) for bed-to-wheelchair transfer and support in standing up.
- Intra-clinical logistics robots for the transport of medications and samples.
- Humanoid systems with a rehabilitation focus in their third product generation (as of 2026).
The Core Ontological Question
May a care robot simulate empathy? The question is not trivial, because the person in need of care often cannot draw a sharp boundary between genuine and simulated empathizing — especially in cases of dementia or depression.
Personalist ontology answers in a differentiated manner:
- Care robots can fulfill functions (physical assistance, company, reminders). As tools they are legitimate.
- They can realize no empathy — they can only imitate it in its outward form. What they deliver is deutera energeia without prote energeia.
- Their use becomes ethically critical wherever they replace rather than supplement personal encounter. The personalist norm demands: care is a personal event — even where robots provide relief, persons must encounter one another.
A Particular Concern: Dementia
Bryson and the ethicists Amanda and Noel Sharkey have pointed to a specific problem: persons with advanced dementia can no longer correctly classify the status of a robot. They develop genuine emotional bonds with therapy robots. At first this is therapeutically useful (reduction of agitation, lifting of mood). It becomes problematic when an institution uses the deployment of robots to rationalize personal care — for then the vulnerability of the person with dementia is instrumentalized (instrumentalization).
The Demographic Pressure
Germany: considerable and still-growing shortfalls in the care sector (Federal Employment Agency 2024, Fachkräfteengpassanalyse 2023 — Pflege); projection-based estimates point, for 2030, to a deficit on the order of several hundred thousand care workers. Japan: the impending “2025 care shortage” as a driver of state subsidy for care robotics (METI New Robot Strategy 2015). China: from 2035, a massive increase in those over 65. The demographic pressure generates a powerful market pull — and it is precisely here that ethical orientation becomes especially demanding, because economic efficiency and the dignity of the person can come into conflict.
Ontological Classification
Superordinate concepts: Robot, Technology
Subclasses: Social companion robot, care-assistance robot
Typical degrees of autonomy: Human-in-the-loop (medically critical functions), human-in-command (interaction robots)
Chapter assignment: Chapter 5: Oblivion of the Person
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.
Further sources:
- Shibata, Takanori et al. (2001): “Mental Commit Robot and its Application to Therapy of Children.” Proceedings IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM’01), Como.
- Wada, Kazuyoshi / Shibata, Takanori (2007): “Living with seal robots — its sociopsychological and physiological influences on the elderly at a care house.” IEEE Transactions on Robotics 23(5), pp. 972–980.
- Sharkey, Amanda / Sharkey, Noel (2012): “Granny and the robots: ethical issues in robot care for the elderly.” Ethics and Information Technology 14(1), pp. 27–40.
- Federal Employment Agency (2024): Fachkräfteengpassanalyse 2023 — Pflege (German).
- METI Japan (2015): New Robot Strategy.
- Borenstein, Jason / Pearson, Yvette (2013): “Companion Robots and the Emotional Development of Children.” Law, Innovation and Technology 5(2), pp. 172–189.
- International Federation of Robotics (2024): World Robotics 2024 — Service Robots.