Robotic Assistant for Elderly Care - Development and Evaluation

Abstract

Robots perform a variety of tasks and serve various purposes in the medical/health and social care sectors. Recently, interest has been growing in developing robotic assistants for health-related care of elderly people. These robotic systems can be used to improve the life of elderly, ensuring healthy and active ageing, thus extending the life expectancy of the elderly in their familiar home environments. In this paper, we present a low-cost telepresence robotic assistant that can assist elderly and professional caregivers in everyday activities. The robot can be operated manually or by using a shared control paradigm. The robot can also be used for interpersonal communication, thus favoring social integration. The developed robot and its navigation capabilities have been evaluated in simulations and experiments, and the evaluation results are reported.