Intelligent Assistive Robotic Systems for the elderly: Two real-life use cases

Mobility impairments are prevalent in the elderly population and constitute one of the main causes related to difficulties in performing Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and consequent reduction of quality of life. When designing a user-friendly assistive device for mobility constrained people, it is important to take into account the diverse spectrum of disabilities, which results into completely different needs to be covered by the device for each specific user. An intelligent adaptive behavior is necessary for the deployment of such systems. Also, elderly people have particular needs in specific case of performing bathing activities, since these tasks require body flexibility. We explore new aspects of assistive living via intelligent assistive robotic systems involving human robot interaction in a natural interface. Our aim is to build assistive robotic systems, in order to increase the independence and safety of these procedures. Towards this end, the expertise of professional carers for walking or bathing sequences and appropriate motions have to be adopted, in order to achieve natural, physical human - robot interaction. Our goal is to report current research work related to the development of two real-life use cases of intelligent robotic systems for elderly aiming to provide user-adaptive and context-aware assistance.

[1]  Nir Giladi,et al.  Gait instability and fractal dynamics of older adults with a "cautious" gait: why do certain older adults walk fearfully? , 2005, Gait & posture.

[2]  Iasonas Kokkinos,et al.  Understanding Objects in Detail with Fine-Grained Attributes , 2014, 2014 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[3]  Osamu Mizuno,et al.  Development of hair-washing robot equipped with scrubbing fingers , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[4]  Matteo Cianchetti,et al.  Learning Global Inverse Statics Solution for a Redundant Soft Robot , 2016, ICINCO.

[5]  Patrick Brézillon,et al.  Context in problem solving: a survey , 1999, The Knowledge Engineering Review.

[6]  D. Dunlop,et al.  Disability in activities of daily living: patterns of change and a hierarchy of disability. , 1997, American journal of public health.

[7]  Begonya Garcia-Zapirain,et al.  Gait Analysis Methods: An Overview of Wearable and Non-Wearable Systems, Highlighting Clinical Applications , 2014, Sensors.

[8]  Mariangela Manti,et al.  Soft assistive robot for personal care of elderly people , 2016, 2016 6th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob).

[9]  Petros Maragos,et al.  Hidden markov modeling of human pathological gait using laser range finder for an assisted living intelligent robotic walker , 2015, 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

[10]  T. Hermana,et al.  Gait instability and fractal dynamics of older adults with a “ cautious ” gait : why do certain older adults walk fearfully ? , 2005 .

[11]  Petros Maragos,et al.  Experimental validation of human pathological gait analysis for an assisted living intelligent robotic walker , 2016, 2016 6th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob).

[12]  B J F Driessen,et al.  MANUS—a wheelchair-mounted rehabilitation robot , 2001, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part H, Journal of engineering in medicine.

[13]  Roger Orpwood,et al.  The Weston wheelchair mounted assistive robot - the design story , 2002, Robotica.

[14]  S. Katz,et al.  STUDIES OF ILLNESS IN THE AGED. THE INDEX OF ADL: A STANDARDIZED MEASURE OF BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOSOCIAL FUNCTION. , 1963, JAMA.

[15]  Klaus Hauer,et al.  Design of a bath robot system — User definition and user requirements based on International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) , 2016, 2016 25th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN).

[16]  Costas S. Tzafestas,et al.  Gait modelling for a context-aware user-adaptive robotic assistant platform , 2015 .

[17]  Costas S. Tzafestas,et al.  Towards ICT-supported bath robots: Control architecture description and localized perception of user for robot motion planning , 2016, 2016 24th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED).

[18]  Yuichi Tsumaki,et al.  Development of a skincare robot , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[19]  Petros Maragos,et al.  Hidden Markov modeling of human normal gait using laser range finder for a mobility assistance robot , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[20]  Mike Topping,et al.  An overview of the development of Handy 1, a rehabilitation robot to assist the severely disabled , 2000, Artificial Life and Robotics.

[21]  Carlos Balaguer,et al.  The MATS robot: service climbing robot for personal assistance , 2006, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.