GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (GOSY)

[XenaLives]

Just like the wheelchair which has been studied to death by academia but never developed as a practical solution, eldercare robots have also been studied heavily and resulted in nothing marketable. Kompai is the perfect example of this.

Read the abstract:

http://www.aaai.org/Papers/Symposia/Spring/2007/SS-07-07/SS07-07-012.pdf

Abstract
Teleoperated from a distant location, a mobile robot
with some autonomous capabilities can become a beneficial
tool in telehealth applications. Assistive technologies
for telementoring in homes constitute a very
promising avenue to decrease load on the health care
system, reduce hospitalization period and improve quality
of life. However, design issues related to such systems
are broad and mostly unexplored, but with very
few systems currently available commercially. Mobile
robots operating in home environments must deal with
constrained space and a great variety of obstacles and
situations to handle. This paper presents the interdisciplinary
design methodology followed to develop Telerobot,
a telepresence assistive mobile robot for home
care assistance of elderly people. Using field trials with
existing platforms, focus groups and interviews, initial
requirements for the new mobile robot platform with its
augmented video user interfaces are outlined.

Spencer did his focus group about 10 years before and when he went into the home trials they interacted with the elderly and he knew in advance that the CareBot would fit through the doors.

Preliminary Studies
Three types of preliminary studies were conducted in our
project: telerobotic systems in home environments; focus
groups with healthcare professionals and elderly people; interviews
with system users to model the health information
architecture. The objective of these studies was to gather
more information to come up with good initial specifications
for the telerobotic system.

Therefore, we conducted a pilot study to evaluate two
conceptually different user interfaces for teleoperated mobile
robotic systems, with trained and untrained operators
(Labonte et al. 2006). This study aimed at identifying locomotion
and structural requirements for the new robotic
platform, as for user interface requirements for improved efficiency
and security of novice operators of mobile robots.
The objective was to identify critical elements that must be
considered in the design of such system, before considering
conducting an in-depth study (e.g., statistical analysis with a
probabilistic sample).

It's a paper about a preliminary study, not an in home alpha trial of a functioning system. It seems to use predecessors of AVA, which is still a developmental platform. IRobot's current medical telepresence platform is for hospitals and it's so expensive they can't sell it, they can only lease it to selected customers, apparently for extended alpha testing. It is not a marketable product.

GeckoSystems has the only eldercare robot that has been thoroughly Alpha tested and is ready for final development and Beta testing. It could be on the Japanese market by 2015, the first mobile service robot to qualify for 90% coverage under Japanese nursing care insurance.

GeckoSystems also has the only wheelchair with a marketable AI robotic navigation system. With adequate funding or the right partner or licensee it will be on the market in a matter of months.