As one of the biggest industrial robot markets in the world, China is developing its smart technologies to provide better educational and care services for children and the elderly.
Children in a kindergarten on the outskirts of Beijing are solving puzzles which are assigned by their new teaching assistant – a roundish robot named Keeko.
Each time they get an answer right, the heart-shaped eyes on Keeko's face light up.
The half meter tall robot is equipped with a camera and a screen. It can tell stories, record video journals, and challenge children with logic problems.
Candy Xiao is a teacher at the Yiswind Institute of Multicultural Education. She says that Keeko has been a hit among the students.
"When children see Keeko with its round head and body, they love this image. After they see it, we don't need to make too much of an effort to make children like Keeko, because the robot just sits there and they like it already."
She says that the robots provide a different approach to the learning process.
"Education today is no longer just the teacher teaching and the students learning. We hope that students can take the initiative to acquire, through different channels, all different kinds of knowledge, and be interested in what's happening around the world. Keeko can serve as one of those channels."
Besides assisting educators, robots are also being developed in China for delivering groceries, dispensing legal advice, providing guidance in hospitals, and also examining the health conditions of elderly people.
Zhou Xiaohong, from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Engineering Technology Research Center in Guangzhou, explains how the robots produced by her company conduct physical examinations of elderly and offer medical advice.
"The robot is able to identify facial features, and even check the coating on the tongue to carry out a traditional Chinese medicine health check. It is also able to conduct 'emotional' tests, as traditional Chinese medicine highly values emotional stability. The robot will give the necessary medical advice when it finds an elderly patient has a poor mood."
More than 130 thousand industrial robots were produced in China last year, an increase of 68 percent on the previous year.
The service robot market – which includes devices ranging from specialized medical equipment to automated vacuum cleaners – is estimated to be worth over 1.3 billion US dollars last year.
It is expected to grow to 4.9 billion by 2022.
The value of the global robotics industry has surpassed 25 billion U.S. dollars last year, and is expected to reach nearly 30 billion dollars this year.
