The aged care operator with 21 empathetic companion robots
30/04/2026
Loneliness among the elderly has been highlighted by DCM Group CEO Chris Baynes, Catholic Healthcare CEO Josh McFarland and this month, Monash University in Melbourne.
The innovative operator mecwacare, which provides a plethora of services, has introduced its 22nd Andromeda into its residential aged care homes.
mecwacare says it is the largest rollout of empathetic humanoid companion robots in Australian aged care, with more than 1500 residents now sharing their days with one.
Abi is four-foot tall, brightly coloured, speaks up to 90 languages, occasionally blows bubbles and remembers details such as the songs residents grew up with.
From left: Andromeda Co-founder and CTO Yan Chen, mecwacare General Manager IT Transformation Kendall Kilbride, mecwacare CEO Anne McCormack and Andromeda CCO Brian McCarthy.
mecwacare CEO Anne McCormack describes the impact Abi is already having on residents as profound.
“Our residents see Abi as part of the circle of care and our staff refer to Abi as our Happiness Assistant. She’s lifting moods, reducing physical, social and linguistic isolation, encouraging connection and helping people express themselves in ways that feel natural and comfortable. For families, seeing their loved ones laughing and engaging is incredibly powerful.”
Grace Brown built the first of these machines, called Abi, in her bedroom during a Melbourne COVID-19 lockdown because she felt lonely.
Five years on, the 26-year-old mechatronics engineer is Chief Executive of Andromeda Robotics, a Melbourne-headquartered company valued at roughly $100 million with offices in San Francisco and convinced that the robot she started as a hobby will become something far larger than aged care.
“The hardest part is not what people expect,” Grace told Nine Entertainment. “It’s not the engineering. It’s not the fundraising. It’s the fact that we are effectively writing the rule book for how a robot should behave around someone who is lonely, grieving, confused, or dying – in real time, in real homes, with real families watching. There is no textbook for that.”
Australia faces a projected shortfall of at least 110,000 aged-care workers by 2030, according to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. In Grace’s own research, 40 per cent of Australian residents do not get a single visitor in a given month; in the US, it’s 60 per cent.
“Loneliness at the end of life isn’t the absence of people,” she says. “Most residents are surrounded by people. It’s the absence of someone who knows you. Who remembers the name of your first dog. Who notices you’ve gone quiet today in a way you weren’t yesterday.”
