e-service robot in home healthcare

As the population-aging problem is increasingly pressing on society, and the associated healthcare costs are taking up an incremental percentage of the GNP, various inexpensive support systems for elderly people staying alone at home are becoming very demanding. Fortunately, as the Internet continues to expand exponentially and accesses to the Internet become more prevalent in our daily life, home healthcare systems based on teleoperated mobile robot platform via the Internet become feasible. In this paper, we describe a feasibility study and a basic platform design of a teleoperated home healthcare system via the Internet, which include a literature review of the state of the art in research on this topic, discussions on some open problems and challenges facing researchers in this area and a basic platform design of a home healthcare system via the Internet current under implementation in our research lab.

[1]  D. Takaoka,et al.  Development of a transfer supporting equipment , 1995, Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots.

[2]  Dorin Comaniciu,et al.  Decision support system for multiuser remote microscopy in telepathology , 1999, Proceedings 12th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (Cat. No.99CB36365).

[3]  Joseph F. Engelberger,et al.  Robotics in Service , 1989 .

[4]  Patrick A. Finlay Medical robotics — why, what and when , 1989 .

[5]  Koji Ikuta,et al.  General evaluation method of safety for human-care robots , 1999, Proceedings 1999 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.99CH36288C).

[6]  P. Kopacek,et al.  New applications captured by intelligent mobile robot platforms , 1997, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Engineering Systems.

[7]  T. Komeda,et al.  Mobile robot system to aid the daily life for bedridden persons , 1996, 1996 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. Information Intelligence and Systems (Cat. No.96CH35929).

[8]  Michael Kassler,et al.  Robotics for health care: a review of the literature , 1993, Robotica.

[9]  Uwe D. Hanebeck,et al.  ROMAN: a mobile robotic assistant for indoor service applications , 1997, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and Systems. Innovative Robotics for Real-World Applications. IROS '97.

[10]  Uwe D. Hanebeck,et al.  Design Issues of a Semi-Autonomous Robotic Assistant for the Health Care Environment , 1998, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[11]  Tariq Rahman,et al.  IROS special session on "Service robots for the disabled and elderly". A technique for robotic assisted transfer for people with motor difficulties , 1994, Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'94).

[12]  Fernando Matía,et al.  Increasing Intelligence in Autonomous Wheelchairs , 1998, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[13]  K. G. Engelhardt,et al.  Robotic applications in meal preparation assistance for older adults , 1997 .

[14]  Ulrich Berger,et al.  An Application Platform for the Development and Experimental Validation of Mobile Robots for Health Care Purposes , 1998, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[15]  R. D. Schraft,et al.  Care-O-bot/sup TM/: the concept of a system for assisting elderly or disabled persons in home environments , 1998, IECON '98. Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (Cat. No.98CH36200).

[16]  Michael Kassler Introduction to the special issue on robotics for health care , 1993, Robotica.

[17]  Joseph F. Engelberger,et al.  Health-care robotics goes commercial: the 'HelpMate' experience , 1993, Robotica.

[18]  Luis M. Camarinha-Matos,et al.  Intelligent mobile agents in elderly care , 1999, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[19]  Paolo Fiorini,et al.  Health care robotics: a progress report , 1997, Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation.