Toilet Assistive System Designed for the Reduction of Accidental Falls in the Bathroom Using Admittance Controller

Abstract

This paper suggests an assistive system for the toilet with the objective of measuring human activities and to provide intelligent mechanical assistance to help seating and standing. The project intends to develop a seating assistance as a technical aid in order to reduce accidents and falls in the bathroom. The preferred technique is human-robot physical interaction algorithms known in collaborative robotics (cobot) and adapting it to a personalized assistance technology installed on a smart toilet. First, the design of the mechanical assistance is presented. Then, an admittance controller is designed and implemented in order to help the user in a similar way as a cobot could be used. This technique could be used to assist the user and improve balance with adequate training and an adequate configuration of the admittance controller.

A review on squat-assist devices to aid elderly with lower limb difficulties in toileting to tackle constipation

“…Still these designs do not address the safety of the user while he is standing from or seated to a toilet seat. The development of an intelligent system for assisting a user to sit and stand to/from a toilet commode in order to reduce accidents and falls in bathroom has been reported by Otis et al 63 The system has a toilet seat similar to that of the one used in ‘iToilet’ project with several pressure sensors on the toilet seat and Infrared sensors to detect human activities in order to detect falls. Fall detection has also been incorporated in the ‘iToilet’ project.…”

Evaluation of Standing-Up Motion from a Forward-Sloping Toilet Seat for Older People

“…Therefore, the standing-up motion assistive system must be simple and safe so as to be operated by a single person. In a previous study [12], a prototype of a toilet assistive system using an admittance controller consisting of a toilet seat lift module, two actuators, and force sensors was reported, which could measure the distribution of the center of pressure on the seat. This system will help the two actuators to bear the weight of the person (considering a weight of 100 kg).…”

“…However, it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the ease of the standing-up motion using transfer aids such as handrails. Previous studies have evaluated objective data (e.g., muscle activity, body motion, center of pressure), but it was difficult to evaluate the ease of the standing-up motion [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Therefore, the ease of the standing-up motion needs to be evaluated with both objective and subjective data.…”