Bear carrying the sick

The friendly bear-shaped nurse-like nurse is being tested in some hospitals in Japan.

This is the invention of the Japanese Institute of Physics and Chemistry and the Tokai Rubber Industries. The nurse bear is named RIBA - the abbreviation for Robot for Interactive Body Assistance. It is designed to assist hospital staff in lifting patients into and out of bed.

The RIBA bear picked up the patient from his wheelchair and placed it on the bed. (Photo: Daily Mail)

The RIBA weighs 180 kg and is equipped with soft hands that attach sensors to lift the patient gently from chair to bed. The team says the robot can follow simple speech commands and recognize hospital staff.

" Moving patients from a wheelchair or bed to bed is a hard job, and many nurses suffer from lumbar pain because of that." The appearance of RIBA will be of benefit to them, "said a spokeswoman. Research in Physics and Chemistry told the Daily Mail.

Scientists design robots as bears because they believe that human-like robots will scare patients. This is the "Uncanny Valley" syndrome. In the hypothesis of the syndrome, if the robot has the same shape and behavior, it will cause fear in the witness.

The presence of RIBA may reduce the incidence of back pain in the nursing home. (Photo: Daily Mail)

Japan is facing a shortage of nurses in the context of an aging population. Officials hope robot technology will help them solve the problem. The RIBA design team hopes their product will be available in all hospitals in five years.