IntelliTable: Inclusively-designed intelligent furniture with robotic capabilities

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Future homes will integrate robotic technology into many everyday devices and objects; expanding their functionality, ease-of-use, and customisability. An important class of objects will be items of furniture that have embedded intelligence and actuation capabilities. ‘Intelligent furniture’ will be useful to everyone but particularly to people with limited mobility. The creation of intelligent furniture will bring state-of-the-art robotic technologies out of the lab and into the domestic, healthcare and business markets. In this project we will develop and prepare for market an exemplar of this new class of device—the IntelliTable. This will be a stylish and elegant universal cantilever table able to move around by itself, or under user control, in an indoor environment. The IntelliTable will support people in living independent and productive lives, particularly as they grow older. Development of the IntelliTable will emphasize high-quality inclusive design, safe and intuitive functionality, affordability and environmental sustainability. The project will be led by Sebastian Conran Associates, an established and world-leading design SME, in collaboration with the Sheffield Centre for Robotics at the University of Sheffield.