Editorial note: The key elements of the future smart cities

One of the key elements of the future smart cities is automation and utilisation of robotic system technology. It is believed that not in the far future that home automation, healthcare, telecare, digitised technology and assisted living technology will make a real impact in our quality of life, especially for older adults with long term condition. Older adults to live independently and have a good quality of life is quite a challenge, since the majorly of them have long term health condition diseases. Health services providers across EU and overall the world, informal and formal carer plays major roles in providing the necessary services and support. Diseases on older adults society are one of the leading causes of death, from which thousands of people die every year. Many of the non-communicable diseases can be prevented by tackling associated risk factors. The cost of treatment of such diseases in the EU only is estimated to be over 70% of the Health Service budget. Treatment includes home-care, medication, consultation and many other relevant services. However, these services are still not adequate, due to the lack of implemented automation and robotic systems technology that enable the older adults to manage their daily life activities independently, taking medications, receive the necessary health services on time, which, in many cases leads to loss of lives and waste of NHS resources. Daily life activities management and telehealth remote monitoring system is one of the potential innovative approaches, to improve the older adult’s quality of life, help live independently, improve NHS services, sustain its economic growth and improve social development. It is a rapidly developing concept where daily life activities, health condition, medical information is transferred through interactive data, and audio visual media and shared between services provider, informal and formal carer. In this 4th issue and 2nd issues the journal a selection of some of these technological challenges facing the automation industry are presented and some of the inventive researcher pioneering solutions and findings are introduced.

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