Preliminary Findings of the AALIANCE2 Ambient Assisted Living Roadmap

Abstract

The AALIANCE2 Project, funded by the European Commission's ICT Programme within the 7 th Framework Programme, aims at identifying the research priorities in the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) field in Europe and worldwide for the next decades. One of the main objectives of this Project is the development of an AAL Roadmap and Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) that, starting from the needs of the elderly and caregivers, describes the possible next generation of AAL service scenarios, the necessary key enabling technologies (KETs) and the technological, legal and economic requirements necessary for the implementation of the proposed AAL systems. Some of these new AAL scenarios show how technologies, such as robotics and ICT solutions, could be used in senior citizens' daily life activities to maintain their independence and to stay healthy and active in society. At the same time, other scenarios propose new approaches and solutions for caregivers to efficiently support old persons and optimize their work. The Roadmap and the Strategic Research Agenda finally present the future technological challenges to developing the proposed service solutions. This paper provides a short overview of the preliminary version of the AALIANCE2 Roadmap.

ACCRA Project: Agile Co-Creation for Robots and Aging

“…The greatest challenge for Europe and Japan is to create a sustainable health system. In this context, AAL researches focus they efforts onto three main pillars: Prevention, Compensation and Support and Independent Living [4]. These pillars represent the effect that AAL services have on the life of older persons.…”

“…Firstly, it is important to notice that (as remarked in [4] [3]) the understanding of stakeholders' needs play an essential role in the design of acceptable, usable and near-to-market research products. The needs of older citizens are mainly related to the physiological and physical disorder due to natural decline, chronic diseases of physical impairments.…”

“…In this context, robots can contribute to make those environments more friendly [3]. In this context, over the last years, researches in the field of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) aim to develop technological solutions which are devoted to enhance the quality of life of elderly population, promoting their independent living, supporting their daily activity and encouraging preventive actions [4]. In a not remote future scenario, service robotic platforms will be machines that aims to cooperate with human-beings to help and assist persons of all ages in daily activities at home, in their workplace and in other environments.…”

Design of cloud robotic services for senior citizens to improve independent living in multiple environments

“…The primary needs of seniors are to maintain as long as possible an adequate QoL, to be active and to participate in community life and to retain control over their own life even when they need care and assistance [5]. However, ageing causes a physiological decrease of motor, sensory and cognitive abilities of the people as well as a number of related frailties and physical impairments that reduce their independence.…”

Design of a cloud robotic system to support senior citizens: the KuBo experience

“…In this context, Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions aim to meet users' and stakeholders' needs, providing ICT and robotic services able to assist the user during daily activities (van den Broek et al 2010;Moschetti et al 2014). The main benefits which can been achieved by service robots are:…”