Pillo: a medication-management robot that returned under the Black+Decker name

A founder who lost his father built a medication robot

Pillo was a home medication-management robot made by Pillo Health of Boston. The company was founded in 2015 by Emanuele Musini, James Wyman and the physician Aiden Feng. In an interview on a Microsoft blog, Musini said the idea began when his father died after not taking his medication properly. Pre-orders opened on Indiegogo in June 2016. Reports gave the backer price as either $250 or $299, and the planned retail price was $599. The robot kept pills in compartments and, when a dose was due, dropped it into a cup below its touchscreen face and gave a spoken reminder. Facial recognition and motion detection checked that the right person had picked up the medication, and the robot could alert a caregiver if not.

The same robot, under the Black+Decker name

In January 2019 Stanley Black & Decker showed Pria, a robot that looked almost identical to Pillo, at CES. At that point Pillo cost $499 plus $39.99 a month and was out of stock. In May, Pillo Health closed an $11 million Series A led by Stanley Black & Decker’s venture arm with Samsung Ventures taking part. Pria by BLACK+DECKER went on sale on 19 September. Pillo Health built the technology platform and Black+Decker handled sales to consumers. The price was $749.99. The company’s press release said it included a one-year subscription, but a review listed a separate subscription of $9.99 a month or $99 a year (sources differ). The Boston Globe reported in March 2019 that the first production run had sold out and that the company was working with Hackensack Meridian Health to distribute devices to patients.

A high price and a pill case with no lock

Reviews in 2020 raised price first. MacSources wrote “I think it's very cost-prohibitive especially for seniors who are on a fixed income.” It also noted that the device has no lock or alarm. Gearbrain reported that gummy vitamins got stuck and that loading pills by hand was hard. Tech-enhanced Life found the loading process very slow and said the system was not a good choice for people with impaired cognition. On the other side, Gearbrain called it a good fit for the right person and family, and Tech-enhanced Life recommended it for an older adult with a simple regimen. Musini said the main buyer is a caregiver looking after someone who takes several medications.

The buyer and the user were different people

The Pillo team saw the main buyer as the caregiver, not the person taking the pills. Reviewers, however, judged price and the hassle of loading from the point of view of the older adult who touches the device every day. When the person paying and the person using are different, meeting only one side’s expectations is not enough. The company is recorded as acquired in 2020, but how many Pria units sold and how long they were supported after that is not confirmed. Comparing it with Jibo, which lost its functions when its servers went off, would first require knowing that.

If the person who pays and the person who uses it every day are different, whom should this robot be built to fit first?

What we haven’t confirmed

• How many Pillo and Pria units were sold, and the size of the first production run
• The exact date and terms of the 2020 acquisition (only data-provider records were found) and when Pria sales and support ended
• Whether any units still work, and how much they depend on an app or servers
• The final amount raised in the Indiegogo campaign