Criteria for Quality and Safety while Performing Unobtrusive Domestic Mobility Assessments Using Mobile Service Robots

A new concept for safely performing and qualitatively evaluating assessments in domestic unsupervised environments, especially when utilizing mobile service robots, is presented. The presented approach is based on the idea that classical geriatric assessments, especially from the domain of mobility, may be divided in components which happen naturally throughout the day in domestic environments. Those components are measured separately and are recombined to com-plete assessment tests later on. In order for physicians to decide how reliable assessment results from the domestic do-main are, we define technical quality criteria for the components of the Timed Up&Go assessment test. The approach is evaluated within an experiment in a living lab utilizing sensors, especially a laser range scanner, equipped with a mobile robot. Results show that the presented approach may be used to separate sensor measurements promising good assess-ment results from those containing insufficient data. Additionally, using mobile robots to perform assessments in domestic environments holds the potential danger for the inhabitant to stumble over the robot. Therefore, the paper also evaluates the aspect of inhabitants’ safety during domestic assessments based on the experiment’s data. A novel approach to navigate safely using the previously presented approach of optimal observation lots (OOL) is presented.