NSF Convergence Accelerator Track M: Soft Growing Robots for Mobility Support

在后疫情时代，美国面临老年人护理危机。严重的劳动力短缺，加上与老年人护理相关的高成本，迫使养老院关闭或提供不合格的护理。此外，70多万老年人在等待各州提供的医疗补助家庭和社区服务。除了专业护理，护理责任往往落在家庭成员，亲戚和朋友身上。在美国，超过5300万私人护理人员正在经历巨大的身体，精神和经济压力，许多人减少了工作时间，甚至放弃了全职工作。 该项目旨在帮助老年人和护理人员提供费力甚至危险的移动支持。例如，将老年人从床上转移到轮椅上是一项令人疲劳的艰巨任务，导致许多护理人员背部受伤。一个易于使用的系统，温柔而强大的机器人带，去下的背部老年人和解除他们的身体可以安全地转移到轮椅上。不需要打电话给护理人员。老年人可以自己起床，更独立地生活。这种特殊的腰带设计灵感来自于具有柔软生长附属物的生物物种，如海洋蠕虫和攀爬叶片。在一个沉重的人体下伸出一个尖端类似于在土壤中打洞。一些“环蠕虫”外翻它们的内脏，像一个楔子，通过裂缝传播穿过沉积物。这种海洋蠕虫的外翻机构已经实现了由双层管板组成的软机器人装置。当加压空气被供应到管状片材时，尖端延伸并进入人体下方。管状片材可以具有高拉伸强度以提升主体。该项目将建立用于支撑和提升人体的柔软可延伸带技术，并开发用于安全、轻柔和自主转移老年人的功能原型。仅通过先进的设计无法实现支持设备的成功部署。在整个项目期间，将采用产品开发方法来获取最终用户的反馈，并将制定有效部署技术和消除采用障碍的战略。特别重要的是用户的参与和指导，以便他们能够轻松安全地使用设备。该项目将应用大型语言模型和人机交互方法来增强用户参与和指导。该项目将与护理机构的护理专业人员密切合作。该奖项将收集老年人与护理人员以及护理机器人之间的对话和身体互动数据，并用于生成基于人工智能的用户指导和互动系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In the post-pandemic era, the US faces an eldercare crisis. A severe workforce shortage, combined with the high costs associated with eldercare, is forcing nursing homes to close or provide substandard care. Furthermore, over 700,000 older adults are on waiting lists for Medicaid home and community-based services provided by individual states. Outside of professional caregiving, care responsibilities often fall to family members, relatives, and friends. Over 53 million private caregivers in the US are experiencing enormous physical, mental, and financial stress caring for older adults; many reduce their working hours and even give up their full-time jobs. This project aims to assist both older adults and caregivers in laborious and even dangerous mobility support. Transferring an older adult from a bed to a wheelchair, for example, is a fatiguing, strenuous task, causing numerous caregivers back injuries. An easy-to-use system of gentle yet strong robotic belts that go beneath the back of older adults and lift their body could safely transfer them to a wheelchair. No need to call a caregiver. Older adults can get out of bed on their own and live more independently.The special belt design was inspired from biological species with soft growing appendages such as marine worms and climbing vanes. Extending a tip underneath a heavy human body is similar to burrowing into soil. Some “ringed worms” evert their internal organs to act like a wedge, traveling through sediment by crack propagation. This marine worm’s eversion mechanism has been realized with a soft robotic device consisting of a double-layered tubular sheet. As pressurized air is supplied to the tubular sheet, the tip extends and goes underneath a human body. The tubular sheet can have a high tensile strength to lift the body. This project will establish the soft extendable belt technology for holding and lifting a human and develop a functional prototype for safe, gentle, and autonomous transfer of older adults.Successful deployment of support equipment cannot be achieved by advanced design alone. Product development methodologies will be applied to obtain feedback from end users throughout the project, and strategies will be established for effectively deploying the technology and removing barriers for adoption. Particularly important is engagement and guidance of the users, so that they can use the equipment easily and safely. This project will apply a Large Language Model and human-robot interaction methods to enhance user engagement and guidance. This project will work closely with care professionals at nursing facilities. Data of conversations and physical interactions between older adults and caregivers, as well as with the care robot, will be acquired and used for generating an AI-based user guidance and interaction system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.