The Five Elderly Care Robot

Developed by Tencent Robotics X Lab and unveiled in September 2024, The Five (Chinese: 小五, Xiao Wu) represents the fifth generation of robots from the lab and its first specifically engineered for elderly care applications. The robot’s hybrid four-leg wheel-foot design enables versatile mobility across residential and care facility environments, while integrated tactile sensing supports safe physical interaction during patient assistance tasks.

Product Overview

The Five emerged from Tencent Robotics X Lab’s strategic decision to use elderly care as a demanding scenario to advance robotics capabilities. Lab director Zhang Zhengyou identified multiple pain points in care facilities including patient transfers, fall prevention, heavy lifting, and mobility assistance as targets for robotic intervention.

Unlike conventional bipedal humanoids, The Five employs a distinctive four-leg architecture with wheels integrated into each foot. This hybrid approach combines the obstacle-crossing capability of legged systems with the efficiency and speed of wheeled locomotion. The design specifically addresses the varied terrain found in residential environments—smooth floors, carpets, ramps, stairs, and outdoor surfaces.

The robot’s current status is prototype testing at nursing home facilities in Guangdong Province. Tencent has characterized The Five as requiring further software and hardware iteration before commercial deployment, with representatives indicating that actual nursing home service “still requires considerable time.”

Key Features

The Five is Tencent Robotics X’s fifth-generation robot, combining hybrid leg-wheel mobility with 180-point tactile sensing to support patient transfer and mobility assistance in elderly care settings.

• Hybrid Leg-Wheel Mobility: Four telescopic legs with integrated wheel-foot units enable smooth switching between four-wheel rolling, two-wheel balancing, and quadruped walking modes. Active force control provides suspension-like adaptation to uneven surfaces.

• Large-Area Tactile Skin: Self-developed tactile sensing system covers the robot’s arms with 180 detection points, enabling precise force feedback during physical human interaction. Critical for safe patient handling without causing discomfort or injury.

• Multi-Finger Dexterous Hands: Manipulator hands designed for everyday object handling including grasping, lifting, and transferring items in residential settings.

• High-Capacity Upper Body: Dual arm system capable of supporting loads up to 50kg, sufficient for assisted standing and transfer tasks with elderly patients.

• Autonomous Folding: Self-actuated folding mechanism reduces storage footprint and enables transportation when not in active use.

Technical Specifications

The Five adjusts from 1.4 to 1.8 meters in height, lifts up to 50 kg across dual arms, and navigates flat surfaces, slopes, stairs, and cobblestones via SLAM positioning.

Clinical Applications

The Five has demonstrated specific elderly care capabilities in pilot testing:

Assisted Standing: The robot uses visual recognition to assess patient posture and tactile feedback to provide graduated lifting support as individuals move from seated to standing positions. An optimal control model trained on elderly movement data adjusts assistance parameters to match individual physical characteristics.

Wheelchair Navigation: Equipped with LiDAR and RGBD sensors, The Five can push wheelchairs while autonomously avoiding static and dynamic obstacles in care facility corridors and common areas.

Object Retrieval: The adjustable height system allows the robot to reach both floor-level items and elevated storage locations, assisting residents with package collection and household item management.

Patient Transfer: The 50kg dual-arm capacity supports moving individuals between bed and wheelchair, reducing caregiver physical strain for this common but demanding task.

Regulatory Status

The Five remains in research and development phase without medical device regulatory submissions. As a care assistance device rather than therapeutic equipment, eventual regulatory pathway will depend on specific claims and market positioning at commercialization.

Frequently Asked Questions

What tasks can The Five perform for elderly residents?

Current demonstrated capabilities include helping seniors stand from seated positions, pushing wheelchairs with autonomous obstacle avoidance, retrieving packages and household items, and general mobility assistance. The robot is designed for residential and care facility environments.

How does The Five ensure safe physical contact?

The robot integrates 180-point tactile skin across its arms providing continuous force feedback during patient interaction. Combined with visual posture recognition and optimal control models trained on elderly movement patterns, this enables graduated assistance without excessive pressure or sudden movements.

When will The Five be commercially available?

Tencent has not announced commercial timelines. The robot remains in prototype testing at Guangdong nursing facilities. Lab representatives indicate significant additional development is required before deployment readiness. Industry analysts suggest humanoid care robots generally require 5-10 years to reach affordable mass production.

How does The Five differ from standard humanoid robots?

The Four-leg wheel-foot hybrid design distinguishes The Five from bipedal humanoids. This configuration provides superior stability for patient handling tasks, enables multiple locomotion modes for different terrain, and maintains a smaller footprint when legs are folded together. The design specifically targets residential environment compatibility.