Six Robots & Us

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Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

How useful can robots be in enhancing the lives of ordinary families?

A unique experiment exploring the latest innovations in robotics. How useful can these robots be in enhancing the lives of ordinary families?

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Neil Morrissey

Caroline Jay

Jonathan Rossiter

RDF Television

Tom Peppiatt

Dan Barraclough

Simon Brown

Dominic Sharman

Six Robots & Us: Series 1: Episode 1

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Episode 1

Series 1

BBC Two - Six Robots & Us, Series 1, Episode 1

Mum Amanda meets a robot programmed to help her son Isaac, who has a rare form of dwarfism

Following families as they welcome robots into their homes to assist with their needs. Mum Amanda meets a robot programmed to help her son Isaac, who has a rare form of dwarfism.

Six Robots and Us is a unique experiment exploring the latest innovations in robotics. With science fiction fast becoming a reality, how useful can these robots be in enhancing the lives of ordinary families? 

In a television first, this series follows six British families with different needs as they welcome robots into their homes, from helping them get fit to easing the burden of care and from helping them understand the world to teaching them how to enjoy it. Each robot assists a family with a specific need, but one that millions of us can relate to. How will they react? Will the robots actually work? And will the families want to keep them or switch them off at the end of the experiment?

With unprecedented access to groundbreaking technology, the series reveals the very latest in robotics research - how the robots are made, how they operate and both the possibilities and limitations of how they interact with humans. Following six families' journeys from initial meeting to their deepening dependence on a robot, this eye-opening documentary showcases how our lives could dramatically change in the future.

In this first episode, experts from four universities deliver robots to four different families around Britain. Watching the robots' every move are psychologist Dr Caroline Jay and robotics specialist Professor Jonathan Rossiter. They want to see if the robots can complete their tasks, have humans bond with them and how they function outside of the lab and in the real world.

In Blackburn, single mum Amanda and her six children take delivery of the TutorBot. It has been programmed to help her son Isaac, who has a rare form of dwarfism and a learning delay. For the next two weeks, it is going to try to help Isaac improve his speech. In Plymouth, the FitBot has been programmed to keep the Rocket family in shape. Over the next month, Plymouth University want to see if it can become a credible fitness and nutrition expert.

Six Robots & Us: Series 1

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