2A2-C04 Study on a Practical Robotic Follower to Support Home Oxygen Therapy Patients : Questionnaire-Based Concept Evaluation by Patients(Welfare Robotics and Mechatronics (2))

Abstract

Home oxygen therapy (HOT) is a medical treatment for patients suffering from severe lung diseases. Our ultimate goal is to develop a mobile robot to carry an oxygen tank, which is essential for patients, and follow a patient in an urban outdoor environment. We have proposed a mobile robot with a tether interface to detect the relative position of the foregoing patient. In this paper, we report the questionnaire-based evaluation about the two developed prototypes by the HOT patients. The main results are as follow: The basic following performance is sufficient and the pulling force of the tether is sufficiently small for the patients; The patients prefer the small-sized prototype for compactness and light weight compared with the middle-sized prototype which can carry larger payload; The driving system which we have improved according to the evaluation result satisfies the user needs.