In just a few years the corridors of the Nantes University Medical center will be populated by robots. The digital companion project submitted by the CEA Tech regional platform in Nantes was selected in a call for projects for the hospital of the future. The robots developed under the project will be able to respond to basic patient requests.

The three CEA Tech institutes will contribute their know-how in artificial intelligence, IT, sensors, energy, and materials to the project. They will help develop a conversation agent that can not only hold a simple conversation, but also sense the patient's level of stress, pain, or fatigue and alert caregivers if needed.

The researchers will also leverage collaborative robotics to build exoskeletons to assist patients during rehab. But patients won't be the only people to benefit from these innovations. Robots will also be developed to relieve caregivers of long or tedious tasks like delivering meals or preparing medication, as well as tasks (like lifting patients) likely to result in repetitive stress injuries.

Acceptance testing will be run in parallel to the development of the initial test platform.