Assistant Personal Robot (APR): Conception and Application of a Tele-Operated Assisted Living Robot

Abstract

This paper presents the technical description, mechanical design, electronic components, software implementation and possible applications of a tele-operated mobile robot designed as an assisted living tool. This robotic concept has been named Assistant Personal Robot (or APR for short) and has been designed as a remotely telecontrolled robotic platform built to provide social and assistive services to elderly people and those with impaired mobility. The APR features a fast high-mobility motion system adapted for tele-operation in plain indoor areas, which incorporates a high-priority collision avoidance procedure. This paper presents the mechanical architecture, electrical fundaments and software implementation required in order to develop the main functionalities of an assistive robot. The APR uses a tablet in order to implement the basic peer-to-peer videoconference and tele-operation control combined with a tactile graphic user interface. The paper also presents the development of some applications proposed in the framework of an assisted living robot.

Design, Implementation and Validation of the Three-Wheel Holonomic Motion System of the Assistant Personal Robot (APR)

“…The concept and design of the Assistant Personal Robot (APR, Figure 2) was presented in [9] with the aim to provide personal assistance services in households or institutions without interfering with the inhabitants. The APR was designed to be very maneuverable and capable of navigating in tight spaces.…”

“…Reports from diverse institutions such as the United Nations [7] and World Health Organizations [8] postulate that the proportion of people aged 60 or more will rise from 12% to 21% during the next 35 years as a result of a clear increase of human life expectancy and the development of assistant robots can be a technological tool that will contribute to increase the quality of life of elderly people and people with mobility impairments. In this direction, the combination of assistant mobile robots [9] and fixed domotic systems [10] can be used at home in an unstructured domestic environment and also contribute to supervise or develop some domestic tasks.…”

“…In this direction, the Assistant Personal Robot (APR) [9] proposed the conception of a new robotic assistant designed to operate in tight indoor spaces thanks to its holonomic motion system. The new contribution of this paper is the complete description of the optimized mechanical design, kinematics, and basic control of the three-wheel holonomic motion system implemented in the APR mobile robot.…”

Automatic Supervision of Temperature, Humidity, and Luminance with an Assistant Personal Robot

“…This mobile robot is an improvement of the initial design, focused on providing telepresence services controlled by a human operator [20]. The APR-02 ( Figure 1) is designed for the development of full autonomous tasks and is equipped with an improved computational unit, an improved mechanical structure, and an improved motor control board, as well as being compatible with a wider range of sensors.…”

“…This paper proposes the development of an ambient supervision application as a complementary functionality of an Assistant Personal Robot (APR), a humanoid-shaped assistive robot [20]. Assistive robots are often conceived as polyvalent platforms capable of performing different kinds of assistive routines that can be dynamically programmed on demand by using its available and embedded tools.…”