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On 22-23 August, Cáritas Coimbra hosted the researcher Martina Caic, PhD student at the University of Maastricht under the Marie-Curie program (H2020), to collaborate on the activities of the GrowMeUp project, also funded by the European Union Horizon 2020.

The researcher is conducting a study that aims to analyze the difference between being a caregiver to stimulate and motivate the elderly to perform a physical activity and be a robot to do it. On the first day this research was carried out at the Social Center of S. Pedro and was attended by the GrowMu robot, developed by the GrowMeUp project led by the University of Coimbra and aimed at supporting the elderly in their daily activities, remaining active for a longer time and healthy in their homes. On the second day the protagonist was the robot Vizzy – an assistant robot that is being developed as part of the AHA project that is led in Portugal by the researcher Alexandre Bernardino of the Instituto Superior Técnico of the University of Lisbon and the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA, by Daniel P. Siewiorek and Asim Smailagic.

The tests consisted of the robot inviting participants to play games that involve physical activity. During them, players had to reach a ball projected on a rug by the movements of their feet and hands.