Price the care program, not an imagined device alone
A care-oriented robot pilot is a program involving people, routines, technology, and escalation. Its cost cannot be understood from a hardware number alone. Homebot One’s KOKO Care page describes the program as in development and in-home testing, and it presents pilot access rather than a public retail offer. It also says KOKO Care is not a medical device and does not replace professional care, emergency services, or human judgment. Those boundaries should shape the budget from the first worksheet.
The price is right only when a defined group receives a useful, observable outcome without shifting hidden work or unacceptable risk onto family members and staff. Start by naming the population, site, routines, pilot duration, staffing model, and decisions the pilot must inform. Do not use a broad promise such as “improve care” as the unit of value. A narrow outcome, such as reducing missed non-clinical routine prompts under supervision, is easier to test and price honestly.
Separate the cost stack into six layers
Build the budget from layers that can be confirmed independently: access to the evaluated hardware or program, delivery and site preparation, connectivity and accounts, configuration and integration, training and ongoing operations, and evaluation or closeout. Each layer should have an owner, timing, assumption, and confidence level. If a price or requirement is not published, mark it “quote required” rather than entering a market guess that later looks like a Homebot One figure.
Human time usually spans several layers. Include the staff or family time needed to choose routines, obtain consent, prepare the space, supervise early sessions, document exceptions, contact support, review data, and restore the prior process if the pilot ends. Add travel, language access, accessibility accommodations, and participant compensation when relevant. A budget that omits these tasks can make the technology appear inexpensive by moving real costs outside the spreadsheet.
- Program access or hardware: use only a current written quote.
- Site readiness: space, charging, network, and local safety review.
- People: training, supervision, consent, escalation, and support time.
- Operations: recurring services, maintenance, replacement, and downtime.
- Evaluation: baseline, evidence collection, analysis, and reporting.
- Exit: data return or deletion, equipment removal, and process restoration.
Assign human roles and escalation before measuring value
Write a responsibility table for the participant, family contact, care worker, technical administrator, program owner, vendor contact, and emergency services. State who can configure a routine, who verifies that it occurred, who responds to a missed or confusing interaction, and who can pause the program. KOKO Care should not be budgeted as a substitute for a person who holds a professional, legal, or emergency responsibility.
Consent is an operating process, not a single signature. People need understandable information about what will happen, what information is involved, how to ask questions, and how to stop. The budget should allow time to revisit consent when the routine, software, participant, or data use changes. If the pilot involves human-subjects research rather than ordinary service evaluation, the organization should determine whether its IRB and applicable research rules apply.
Measure cost-effectiveness with bounded outcomes
Set a baseline using the current process, then choose a small set of outcomes. Examples include completion of an agreed non-medical routine, time spent by a helper, number of manual interventions, false or missed prompts, participant comfort, and incidents requiring escalation. Measure harms and burdens alongside benefits. A higher completion count is not meaningful if it depends on constant staff correction or makes the participant less willing to use the system.
Use cost-effectiveness when the desired outcome is not naturally monetary. Divide the complete pilot cost by a clearly defined successful outcome, then show the range created by uncertain assumptions. Also report qualitative findings rather than forcing every experience into dollars. A decision may support a narrower use, a redesigned workflow, a longer evaluation, or no deployment. The purpose of the framework is to improve the decision, not to justify a predetermined purchase.
- Process measure: Was the planned workflow delivered as designed?
- Outcome measure: Did the participant or helper experience the intended change?
- Burden measure: How much setup, supervision, and correction was required?
- Safety measure: What unexpected events or escalations occurred?
- Cost measure: What did the complete program consume, including human time?
Approve a pilot with decision gates
Use staged approval instead of committing the whole budget at once. A preparation gate confirms scope, consent, roles, environment, and a written quote. A technical gate confirms that the relevant workflow can be demonstrated under controlled conditions. A limited-home gate tests ordinary use with defined supervision. A review gate compares evidence with the original success, burden, privacy, and cost thresholds. Failure at a gate should trigger a documented redesign or stop decision.
Request a current statement of the evaluated configuration, included services, support contacts, data practices, known limitations, pilot end conditions, and charges. Keep future roadmap items outside the value calculation unless they are contractually part of the pilot. This lets a family or organization decide whether Homebot One KOKO Care fits the present program without turning an in-development product vision into a medical claim or guaranteed result.
Frequently asked questions
Does Homebot One publish a KOKO Care price?
The official KOKO Care material reviewed for this guide presents development, testing, and pilot access rather than a public retail price. Request a written quote tied to the participants, site, duration, services, and evaluated configuration.
Is KOKO Care a medical device?
Homebot One’s Care page states that KOKO Care is not a medical device and is not a replacement for professional care, emergency services, or human judgment. Do not build a budget around diagnosis, treatment, or emergency-response claims.
Should caregiver time be included in the pilot cost?
Yes. Include planning, consent, setup, supervision, correction, escalation, support, evaluation, and closeout time. Excluding human work can make a pilot look less expensive without reducing the real workload.
What makes a KOKO Care pilot worth continuing?
Continue only when the bounded outcome, participant experience, human workload, safety, privacy, and complete cost meet thresholds set before the pilot. A promising feature alone is not a complete value case.
Sources & further reading
From Homebot One, the team building KOKO in Fremont, California.
