How (Furry) Robot Companions Help Aging Veterans

In a Palo Alto Veterans Administration facility, robot dog and cat companions help aging veterans combat social isolation, loneliness, and cognitive decline.


Mack (not his real name) enlisted in the US Army during the Korean War and served until the Vietnam War ended in 1975. At 88, he's now in an advanced stage of cognitive decline due to dementia, and living with other US veterans in a residential facility within the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS), a 30-minute drive from Apple's new campus.

VAPAHCS serves 67,000 veterans in the local area; it includes a teaching hospital, three nursing homes, multiple advanced research programs in areas like geriatrics, mental health, and Alzheimer's disease, and works closely with the Stanford University School of Medicine.

During a recent visit, a cat named Toby was lying on the table in front of Mack. But Toby is not your average feline; he's a robot. Specifically, he's one of the low-cost (about $100) "robotic companions" from toy maker Hasbro's Joy for All brand, which was acquired by a group of former Hasbro employees in May and spun out into a new company known as Ageless Innovation.

Joy for All Companion Dog

Ann T. Nguyen, Recreation Therapist at VAPAHCS, pointed to Toby and asked Mack, "Why is his hand up?"

"Because he's mad at me," laughed Mack.

"Why is he mad at you?"

"Because I didn't do what he wants."

If you're neurotypical, all you might see is a battery-powered furry toy with multiple (head, body) sensors that allow it to respond to touch via animatronics-style movements of head, paws, and torso, and an on/off switch under a velcro flap to mute it.

But to Mack, Toby is very real and a vital companion at the VA facility. Toby fulfills what Mack needs: he's furry, highly voluble—with squeaks and purrs—and physically expressive, rolling over on his back so his tummy can be tickled.

Therapeutic Tools

During an initial assessment, VAPAHCS staff glean as much information as they can about a veteran's past, especially whether they had a connection to a pet during their years of active service, while at college, or as far back as childhood.

VAPAHCS also has real-life therapy dogs who come into the facility on a regular basis as part of animal-assistance programs, such as Paws for Purple Hearts. During those visits to the on-campus "Canine Corner," veterans who show a real affinity for a particular animal, and perhaps start talking about a pet they once had, are assigned a Joy for All robotic companion.

This is where it gets interesting, in neuroscience terms, as Nguyen told us. "The memory of the real-life therapy dog experience sticks with the robotic dog as an association," she said. "And the veteran starts to project activity onto their new companion."

Joy for All Companion Dog

Essentially, within dementia, the real and the unreal merge, as past associations and signifiers of historical experience lead to either mental ease or distress. The robotic pets provide a sense of comfort, continuity, and calm.

"The robotic pets you've met today, all had names from veterans' pasts," said Nguyen. "But often, over time, we notice the name changes. That's how we know what stage of life their brain now perceives they're in."

As the dementia unspools a veteran's mind, they take solace identifying the robotic pet with a long-gone loved one, assigning it properties which, as a relatively inanimate object, it does not possess.

"It'd be the first one out the gate! And I'd have to say: 'Toby come home!'" Mack chuckled. In response, winningly, Toby did a soft meow and a slight head incline. Mack did a meow back.

But then, a few seconds later, Mack turned serious and said: "Tell them how much of a nasty dog you are, Toby." It was clear Mack was just using the physical presence of the robotic animal—dog or cat—to project whichever pet he had in his mind at that moment.

It really doesn't matter. Mack was having a good time hanging out with Toby. If Toby wasn't there, Mack might be staring into space or stuck in front of the television watching reruns.

Mind Over Matter

You can see how robotic pets like Toby might be the future.

The Veterans Health Administration was set up in 1865, just before the Civil War ended, to care for wounded warriors and retired armed services personnel. But according to its official history, the decision to provide assistance to veterans in need goes back as far as the early 1600s. Today, the VA provides services to 9 million veterans each year and that number is increasing sharply.

Joy for All Companion cat

With life expectancy increasing due to advanced medical care and an aging population, the VA has turned to technology to help its human endeavors. PCMag has covered several of these initiatives, including VITA4Vets and Operation Mend. Many of these initiatives are in partnership with academic research bodies, or within specific trials, and most require sophisticated levels of learning and significant budgets.

What sets the Joy for All cat and pups apart is their low cost and simple "smart enough" technology specs. But they deliver results with a relatively small outlay.

Toby's Creators

After the visit, we tracked down Ted Fischer, former Hasbro executive and now CEO of Ageless Innovation, who gave us the rundown on Joy for All.

"At Hasbro...we knew the health and wellness market was in need of affordable, engaging, fun products that provided a positive impact on happiness and wellbeing," he said. During R&D, "we scoured our historical consumer insights and discovered product reviews from a decade ago that revealed 10-15 percent of a particular product, intended for 4- to 8 year-old girls, was being bought instead for an aging loved one. The reviews were powerful and heartfelt."

This gave Fischer's team a good place to start. They took some prototypes and went into the field, testing a new concept at nursing, assisted living, and independent living communities across the US.

"We discovered the growing epidemic of social isolation, loneliness—all forms of cognitive decline in the older adult population—and kept hearing the need for interactive companionship and meaningful connections," continued Fischer.

The first product, a cat, launched in November 2015, followed by the pup a year later. The company is not releasing exact sales figures, but Fischer said over 100,000 Joy for All Companion Pets are now in homes.

"There are currently multiple independent academic and clinical research projects underway," Fischer said. In partnership with Brown University's Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative, the company also received a $1 million National Science Foundation grant "to collaborate on adding artificial intelligence to the Joy for All platform intended to amplify our impact with the older adult population," he added, so stay tuned for an AI-enhanced Toby 2.0.