Collaboration VU and Deloitte

On Thursday 6 December, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) and Deloitte formalized their intention to underline the collaboration for the further development of the Care robot.

In the collaboration with Deloitte, further steps will be taken in the further development of the prototype known as Alice 2.0. The aim is a robotic solution for health care, which is based on the earlier developed robot and software in the VU research group SELEMCA, led by Johan Hoorn and Elly Konijn, which can help in the prevention of loneliness amongst elderly people.

Within the VU, the activities focus primarily on fundamental and applied research in social robotics. Researchers from different disciplines, such as Media Psychology from Communication Science and AI from Informatics work together on this project. Students can follow a cross-disciplinary master track ‘Socially Aware Robotics’ as of September. Three student groups are already working together with Deloitte to carry out their research project, on the one hand focusing on so-called ‘user tests’, ‘design’ and ‘engeneering’, on the other hand on policy and implementation, as well as marketing.

Deloitte and VU will focus on the further development of user research, concept creation and the development of the design and software of the Care Robot.

IXA VU-VUmc business developers and legal counsel have supported the creation of this collaboration.