Meet Grace: The Healthcare Robot Who is Here to Help Covid’s Frontline Workers

The Hong Kong team behind renowned humanoid robot Sophia is launching a new prototype, Grace, aimed at healthcare, to engage with the elderly and those who are isolated from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grace is dressed in a blue nurse's uniform and has Asian features, collar-length brown hair, and a thermal camera in her chest to take your temperature and measure your responsiveness. She can diagnose a patient using artificial intelligence and speaks English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

According to the report, "I can visit with people and brighten their day with social stimulation, but can also do talk therapy, take bio readings and help healthcare providers," Grace told Reuters as she stood next to her "sister", Sophia, in creator Hanson Robotics' Hong Kong workshop.

Grace's resemblance to a healthcare professional and capacity for social interaction is aimed at relieving the burden of front-line hospital staff overwhelmed during the pandemic, said founder David Hanson.

Grace's launch comes as the global impact of the coronavirus has made the need for humanoid robots urgent, said Kim Min-Sun, a communicology professor at the University of Hawaii.

Stuck at home during COVID-19 lockdowns, many people have had their mental states affected by negative thoughts.

"If they can get help through the deployment of these social robots in intimate settings, certainly it will have a positive impact on society," she said.