RHEM BOT - ROBOT FOR SENIOR CARE
Industrial design
Rhem helps your parents stay independent at home. It can make calls, handle tasks online, keep up with routines and health check-ins, and bring family in when something needs attention.
Challenge
to express care through form, using a design language simple enough to understand at a glance and gentle enough to welcome with open arms. For older adults, technology should feel intuitive, calm and reassuring, with every curve, colour and gesture communicating comfort and trust.
Insight
Rhem Bot answers this with soft, rounded volumes that invite touch, a grounded, pebble-like body that conveys stability, and an expressive screen-face that makes interaction feel natural and personal. A slight lean between head and body reads as curiosity, attention or delight, giving it an easy, playful personality.
Arm Manipulaor
Vehicular
Humanoid
Petform/Companion
Vehicular
Petform/Companion
Vehicular
Petform/Companion
Totem/Appliance
Arm Manipulaor
Humanoid
Functional
Thumbnail Gesture Sketches
a. Peek a boo
b. Ovo
d. Terra
c. Kokeshi Doll
e. Cradle
Rhem Bot Concepts
Initial 3d Prints 4:1 Scale - Testing general proportions, silhouette and volume breaks.
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Screen angle and line read variations
Head and base continuity variations
Base tension and silhouette variations
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The LCD has hard corners, but the form shouldn’t. The bezel was resolved into a soft, generous radius so the rigid screen sits inside an organic shell without fighting it.
Two bezel variations compared side by side, tuning rim thickness and the inner step so the screen feels framed and inset, like a face within a helmet, rather than stuck on.
Exploring where the form splits: horizontal bands, a front-back divide, and an angled cut that follows the head’s tilt. The material breaks were tested to add visual interest, then reduced to a single material to meet cost, with the part lines alone carrying the detail.
Breaking the head into its manufacturable parts (shell halves and a separate bezel ring) to balance the fewest components against clean, intentional seams.
Breaking the upright stance: a subtle S-curve gives the form a lean, a tilt, and a personality before it ever moves
Its form speaks a softer, more human language. A pebble-like body, felt grounded and inviting to touch. A slight lean between head and body reads as curiosity, attention and delight. Personality comes from posture. The screen becomes an expressive face with bright eyes, flowing into clear, oversized type when it's time to help.
