In the western world, there is an increasing number of elderly people, while the number of younger people remains constant or even declines. This puts a huge stress on the elderly care system.

In the Florence project we have investigated how robot technology can support elderly people to live longer independently in their own home. We have developed a multipurpose robot platform offering three building blocks for elderly care services: (1) robotic telepresence, (2) unobtrusive monitoring and (3) cognitive assistance.

In this talk, I will provide an overview of the key lessons learned and future opportunities.