On the design, development and experimentation of the ASTRO assistive robot integrated in smart environments

Abstract

This paper presents the full experience of\ud designing, developing and testing ASTROMOBILE, a system\ud composed of an enhanced robotic platform integrated in an\ud Ambient Intelligent (AmI) infrastructure that was conceived to\ud provide favourable independent living, improved quality of life\ud and efficiency of care for senior citizens. The design and\ud implementation of ASTRO robot was sustained by a\ud multidisciplinary team in which technology developers,\ud designers and end-user representatives collaborated using a\ud user-centred design approach. The key point of this work is to\ud demonstrate the general feasibility and scientific/technical\ud effectiveness of a mobile robotic platform integrated in a smart\ud environment and conceived to provide useful services to humans\ud and in particular to elderly people in domestic environments.\ud The main aspects faced in this paper are related to the design of\ud the ASTRO’s appearance and functionalities by means of a\ud substantial analysis of users’ requirements, the improvement of\ud the ASTRO’s behaviour by means of a smart sensor network\ud able to share information with the robot (Ubiquitous Robotics)\ud and the development of advanced human robot interfaces based\ud on natural language

The multi-modal interface of Robot-Era multi-robot services tailored for the elderly

“…In the application domain of elderly care, SAR platforms are often embedded in Ambient Assisted Living environments [11], in which smart assistance methods and systems are designed and developed for a better and safer life at home, with the aim of enabling elderly people to stay in their preferred environment longer. Many robots may be employed to cover different user needs, and thus there is the need to integrate and enable synergistic cooperation among all these robots that can be deployed to assist the elderly inside or outside their home [1,16].…”

Acceptance of Robot-Era system: results of robotic services in smart environments with older adults (Preprint)

“…The study was conducted as a focus group and live demonstration, but each participant tested at least one robotic capability. The results demonstrated a positive impression by elderly users because the utility of robotic services was appreciated [29].…”

“…For this reason, in recent years, many studies have been conducted to evaluate the acceptance of robots by elderly users [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30].…”

A Cloud Robotics Solution to Improve Social Assistive Robots for Active and Healthy Aging

“…The ability of a robot to efficiently seek the user by exploiting an ambient intelligent infrastructure is still an open scientific challenge [42]. Some recent research in this field have been founded by the European Communitys 7th Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013), like the CompanionAble project [14], the GiraffPluss project [16], and the Astromobile experiment in the ECHORD project [43] [15]. The knowledge of user position also facilitates patients' tracking and monitoring processes for better and long-term daily activity monitoring and allows the recognition of critical situation.…”