I told it, 'Give me a bottle of water,' and it really handed it to me

Sitting on top and being able to control direction with your wrist, this robot is really interesting

At the just concluded 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), an inconspicuous "robot shop" unexpectedly went viral: audiences queued up to interact with robots, and some people simply sat on the robots and let them carry themselves through the crowd. While watching the excitement, more people began to wonder - what exactly can it do? Can we really enter the daily care scene?

Its name is Qijia Q1, developed by Shanghai Rushan Robot Technology Co., Ltd. Unlike traditional service-oriented robots, this is a humanoid robot specially designed for elderly care scenarios. It can do things, carry people, and also accompany and guard, quietly opening a new entrance for the landing of "robot+elderly care".

Elderly care robots are not about being 'cool'

But it's about being 'useful'

At top AI events like WAIC, audiences have long been accustomed to seeing various robots that can "dance" and "write poetry". But the popularity of Qijia Q1 comes precisely from its pragmatic philosophy - it is not meant for performance, but for 'helping'. At the robot booth, Qijia Q1 completed over 500 real-time interactive experiences for 4 consecutive days in a noisy crowd, including executing voice commands, grabbing and delivering items, chatting and interacting, and carrying people for navigation. These were not pre-set scripts, but real-time interactions.

The team admits that these functions actually correspond to the most common and tedious scenarios in daily care:

At night, the elderly get up to ask for water, but they don't want to wake up the caregiver;

Half disabled elderly people go to the bathroom, but they are worried about falling on the way;

An elderly person living alone suddenly fell, but no one noticed it at the scene.

In these concrete and subtle yet recurring "elderly care anxieties," Qi Jia Q1 hopes to play the role of the reliable helper who is always available to help with everything.

It's not a performance robot, but a care robot, "said Dr. Yun Lei, founder of Rushen Robotics." All of our design logic is based on one question: if we only have it at home, can we trust it to do something.

One body, two forms:

Can both operate and carry people

Unlike most robots that mainly use "humanoid structures", the Qijia Q1 adopts a unique dual form fusion design:

• Operation mode: supports tasks such as feeding, turning over, delivering items, and voice interaction;

Wheelchair form: Elderly people can ride directly and support autonomous navigation and manual guidance.

The switching between these two forms only requires one click voice or touch commands to complete the body orientation rotation of the robot body, without any hardware reconstruction, achieving the role transition from "operator" to "carrier". In this process, Qijia Q1 ensures sufficient safety redundancy and interactive controllability even for elderly people by real-time center of gravity adjustment, posture locking, and speed limit protection mechanism.

From a hardware perspective, the practicality of the Qijia Q1 is also reflected in every configuration:

The Qijia Q1 is equipped with an omnidirectional mobile chassis that allows for free movement within the home. It supports stationary rotation and lateral movement, with a measured pass rate exceeding 95% in environments such as door sills, carpets, and narrow passages;

Its robotic arm has a ± 1N level compliant force control accuracy and is embedded with a resistance recognition algorithm that combines software and hardware, which can not only stably lift but also prevent accidental pressure;

Equipped with an electric lifting seat cushion and autonomous positioning algorithm, it can automatically adjust the optimal support position according to the height of the elderly and the transfer scenario, significantly reducing the risk of falls during bed and chair transfer and reducing the burden on nursing staff.

At the WAIC site, many representatives from elderly care institutions took the initiative to test ride and gave feedback: "It's the first time I've seen a robot that can both work and sit, which truly solves the problem of 'two people working together and one person bearing the burden' in institutional care

Relying on both AI and humans:

Can perform actions and maintain safety

Faced with the question of whether it is done by AI itself or remotely operated by humans, the team of embodied robots does not avoid it. Simple tasks, such as handing water or chatting, can be completed by AI. Complex tasks, such as transferring elderly people and turning over to feed, are currently mainly controlled by remote caregivers. ”

The Qijia Q1 adopts a hybrid mode of "AI+remote operation": on the one hand, it is equipped with a multimodal recognition system, which can understand speech, perceive force, and plan paths; On the other hand, with the help of a bilateral force feedback platform, nursing staff can operate with precision like wearing gloves.

This "AI automation+human collaboration" model is considered the most practical path for current elderly care robots to enter reality. Especially in situations where there is no one at night, emergencies occur frequently, and there is a shortage of nursing staff, Qijia Q1 can achieve a "24-hour response without interruption", allowing both family members and caregivers to feel a little more at ease.

Global aging intensifies, robots

No longer an 'option', but a 'solution'

From Japan, Germany to China, many countries around the world are entering a deeply aging society. Shortage of caregiving personnel, heavy burden on families, and increasing pressure on institutional care are no longer problems for a single country, but a common challenge faced by the entire social structure. In this trend, elderly care robots are no longer just a novel concept, but are gradually becoming a rigid configuration in the future care system. We have always believed that robots are not here to 'replace' people, but to 'help' them, "said Dr. Shi Yunlei." They should be an extension of caregiving relationships and a means of making caregiving more sustainable

The design of Qijia Q1 embodies this concept: it is not a single point replacement for a certain position, but provides safe and reliable collaborative support in key scenarios - at night, it can replace people to patrol the house at night; During the day, it can assist in high-frequency operations such as turning over and delivering medicine; In case of emergencies, it can respond to alarms in a timely manner.

By combining intelligent systems with human care, it not only improves care efficiency, but also makes "limited manpower" more efficient and humane.

The future pension is not "people fight against aging", but "human-computer cooperation against aging".

In conclusion:

The WAIC exhibition has ended, but the story of elderly care robots has just begun.

In the case of Qijia Q1, we may be able to re understand that technology is not meant to conquer the world, but to ensure that one more person can sleep well and one more elderly person can safely use the restroom.

It may not be the smartest, but it is always online;

It may not be at the forefront, but it is never absent;

It doesn't want to be like a person, it just wants to help people.

This may be the path that elderly care technology should take the most.