HEN GOLDIE NEJAT BEGAN develop-
ing robots in 2005, she spent much
of her time knocking on doors in
hopes of demonstrating her high-
tech prototypes. Back then, the
health-care world was hesitant.
“Now, it’s the opposite,” says Nejat,
a professor of mechanical engineer-
ing at the University of Toronto. “I
have people calling from around
the world saying, When’s your robot
going to be ready?”
Nejat’s machines, a special type known as socially assistive
robots, are designed to engage with humans and could help
fill an urgent need: caregiving for the elderly. The population
of people over age 80 is projected to almost triple worldwide,
from 143 million in 2019 to 426 million in 2050.
Such robots could be especially useful for patients with Alz-
heimer’s disease or dementia because the robots can be pro-
grammed to assist with everything from providing medication
reminders to leading exercises. Nejat’s robots also can help run
bingo and memory games to keep patients cognitively active.
Inspired by robots’ potential to help the elderly, French
photographer Yves Gellie spent two years creating the
award-winning 2019 film, Year of the Robot, which docu-
ments interactions between elderly people and social robots
in long-term care facilities in France and Belgium. In the film
Gellie and his assistant, Maxime Jacobs, humanize robots by
allowing active engagement between person and machine. In
scenes that appear futuristic, people play piano, dance, and
even tearfully divulge secrets with their robotic companions.
After completing his film, Gellie embarked on a related
photography project in which he asked some of the same
subjects to imagine their dream scenario with a robot. What
would they most like to do? In the images shown here, Gellie
documented people’s interactions with robots after months of
observation. The project was not intended to be therapeutic
or to show the robots’ actual capabilities. Instead, it explored
humans’ capacity to form relationships with machines.
Critics have worried that caregiving robots might eliminate
human interaction and jobs. But the goal is to support human
care, not replace it, says Brian Scassellati, head of Yale Uni-
versity’s Social Robotics Lab. He’s tested robots with a range
of patients, and has found that daily interaction with robots
can help children with autism spectrum disorder improve
W
Photographer Yves
Gellie introduced the
robot to elderly people
over several months.
He didn’t expect every-
one to warm to it. Some
weren’t interested, but
others were eager to
engage. This woman,
at the Broca Hospital
in Paris, said the robot
helped her forget her
surroundings. She loves
books and said she’d
read to the robot.
140 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
