A robot is helping an ailing couple stay in their home. Are more to come for an aging population?

DURHAM, N.H. (AP) — After outliving Booker T. Bones, their second service dog, Brenda and Brian Marquis still needed help with some of the more difficult parts of daily life.

They found Robbie, a robot that rolls out of a hallway into their living room several times a day.

“Do you want to exercise now? Please answer yes or no,” the caregiver robot asks 59-year-old Brian Marquis, who has been living with a traumatic brain injury since a 2012 car crash.

“Yes,” he responds. Then he stands up as the robot’s googly-eyed digital screen “face” morphs into an exercise video that guides him through an afternoon workout.

The decades-long quest to build home robots that are both helpful and lifelike — spurred on by fictional machines like The Jetsons’ humanoid maid Rosie —- is still mostly a pipe dream. That’s despite growing appeal as the oldest baby boomers are turning 80 this year and the United States faces a deepening shortage of home care aides, driven by low wages, high turnover and demanding workloads.

But the machine helping the Marquis family — a robot piloted by a University of New Hampshire laboratory, with funding from the National Institute of Aging — offers a glimpse of the emerging possibilities.

The wheeled robot that some have likened to a coat rack was not what Brenda Marquis initially had in mind when she wrote an email to a robotics professor at nearby UNH, asking for advice on robotic dogs.

Robbie, the couple’s name for a new robot model officially called Stretch 4, spends much of the day at a charging station between the kitchen and bedroom. When it comes out, it does important work, like nudging Brian, who has dementia, to eat lunch or drink water.

Brenda Marquis, 59, said she and her husband have physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities that make life complex.

“We’ve been kind of trapped in a problem here in New Hampshire of being able to find and recruit enough home care support,” Brenda Marquis said in an interview at the couple’s Durham, New Hampshire apartment, where she scoots around in a motorized wheelchair while taking care of her husband. “That was when I started looking into robotics and trying to figure out what to do.”

At the other end of Brenda's email was Momotaz Begum, a UNH computer science professor who has spent years experimenting with “socially assistive” robots that can aid people with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia. Her robotics lab is full of experimental robots, including the four-legged variety.

Begum said the lab asked focus groups of older adults at memory care units what kind of robot they would like as a home companion. Many preferred pet-like robot designs.

“The common feedback that we got about Stretch was, ‘OK, this one looks like a coat hanger,’" she said. "But what we learned over time is that the look doesn’t matter.”

Apart from robotic vacuum cleaners, the closest thing many older adults have to caregiving robots is a speaker powered by an artificial intelligence voice assistant like Alexa. Some robot makers have expanded that concept into swiveling tabletop machines like ElliQ, designed for elder companionship.

But those aren't mobile or functional enough for Begum, who said she is “trying to reduce that caregiver burden. And the caregiver actually does way more than social companionship.”

Humanoids, meanwhile, are still far from being useful in most homes and pose physical danger to people with limited mobility if the robot trips and falls.

The founders of Hello Robot, maker of the Stretch robots, said its simplicity is the point.

“Our robot’s very practical, pragmatic. I think it communicates that,” said CEO Aaron Edsinger, a former director of robotics at Google. "If you show up looking like a humanoid, that expectation’s going to be set so high, it’s going to be very hard to do."

The typical version of the Stretch 4 includes a telescoping gripper that can retrieve a water bottle and hold it out for a person to drink through a straw. Show it a prescription bottle and it can help read the fine print. The robot pulls together information from its cameras and onboard sensors, together with other sensors installed in a home, to figure out its location and who is in the room.

Manufactured at Hello Robot's headquarters in Martinez, California, and sold for nearly $30,000, the new model that launched in May is far from being as ubiquitous as a Roomba or an AI-powered speaker. But for its target clientele, it can be a lifeline.

Robbie’s programmed care protocol for Brian is posted on the couple’s wall, and it includes exercise instructions, meal and medicine reminders, evening routine reminders and quick washup prompts that are only triggered after Brian enters the bathroom.

“I was never into technology," Brian Marquis said. “Then I realized I can’t remember to wash my face and my armpits. So, it just really kind of set me free almost.”

Brenda Marquis said it also freed her from hours of daily work and helped her reduce expenses. Fearful of leaving her husband at home too long, she was ordering groceries on Instacart. Now she can leave him with Robbie and go get groceries herself.

“I can go ahead and go to that mahjong game or whatever. Robbie’s gonna take care of him,” she said.

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AP journalist Rodrique Ngowi contributed to this report.

A Hello Robot gives audio and visual guidance for Brian Marquis' daily exercise routine as he recovers from a brain injury, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A camera on the hand of a Hello Robot uses two lenses for improved depth perception, during a demonstration at the University of New Hampshire, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Momotaz Begum, a professor of computer sciences, speaks about the robotics program at the University of New Hampshire, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A robot operated by a robotics engineer, rear, brings a drink to colleague during a demonstration at the University of New Hampshire, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Brian and Brenda Marquis talk about a robot that helps them stay on task with everything from daily exercise to medication reminders at their apartment Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico coach Javier Aguirre opted Sunday for a new generation of players to use home ground advantage at the World Cup in a bid to seek redemption after one of the worst failures for El Tri in modern times at Qatar 2022.

“El Vasco” Aguirre, guiding the Mexican team into a World Cup for the third time, overhauled a squad that floundered in Qatar and failed to advance from the first round for the first time since 1978.

He picked 13 players who weren't part of the squad four years ago. The most intriguing of them all is 17-year-old midfielder Gilberto Mora, who could become the youngest Mexican man to appear in a World Cup.

Mexico’s youngest World Cup player is Manuel “Chaquetas” Rosas, who was 18 years, 88 days when he played in the inaugural 1930 World Cup.

Brazil great Pele is among the seven players who have contested a World Cup at age 17 — the youngest of them all was Northern Ireland’s Norman Whiteside in 1982 in Spain.

Depending on when Mora makes his World Cup debut — Mexico opens against South Africa on June 11 — he would become the sixth or seventh on the international all-time list for youngest players at the tournament.

Among the veterans returning after the disappointment of Qatar 2022 is goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, who has been picked in a World Cup squad for the sixth time.

Although Ochoa, who made his World Cup debut in 2006, has only played in three World Cups and is currently considered the backup to starter Raúl Rangel.

After taking on South Africa at the Azteca stadium, Mexico will face South Korea in Guadalajara and close out the first round against Czechia on June 24.

Mexico, on a seven-match unbeaten streak, has one more World Cup warmup match against Serbia.

México:

Goalkeepers: Raúl Rangel, Guillermo Ochoa, Carlos Acevedo.

Defenders: Jesús Gallardo, Johan Vázquez, Israel Reyes, César Montes, Jorge Sánchez, Mateo Chávez.

Midfielders: Edson Álvarez, Erik Lira, Alvaro Fidalgo, Gilberto Mora, Brian Gutierrez, Luis Romo, Orbelín Pineda, Alexis Vega, Obed Vargas, Luis Chávez.

Forwards: Roberto Alvarado, Santiago Giménez, Raúl Jiménez, Julián Quiñones, Armando González, Guillermo Martínez, Cesar Huerta.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Mexico’s goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa gestures during the second half of an international friendly soccer match against Australia Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Mexico’s head coach Javier Aguirre gives instructions to his players during the first half of an international friendly soccer match against Australia Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)