SHB: Small: An Assistive, Robotic Table [ART] Promoting Independent Living

在医院里，技术已经变得无处不在，在医疗危机中不可或缺。在家里，技术以计算机化的健康监测系统的形式激增，也许在未来，还会以辅助的“类人”机器人的形式出现。与此同时，我们的日常环境基本上仍然是传统的：低科技水平，难以适应生活的巨大变化。这种社会状况给医疗保健和家庭支持系统带来了压力，并代表了科学家、工程师和建筑师支持独立生活的失败。这项工作的总体目标是通过智能硬件改善日常环境，促进独立生活。该项目的重点是集成到现有生活环境中的联网机器人家具套件的离散组件：辅助机器人桌（ART）。ART是一个典型的床头柜和医院病房里的床上桌子的混合体，由一个新颖的“连续体机器人”台面组成，可以轻轻折叠、扩展和重新配置，以支持工作和休闲活动；智能存储卷，物理管理和交付个人物品；还有一个装饰床头板。ART的这些组件在与人类用户和套件的其他组件交互时相互识别、通信并部分记住对方。该奖项的关键交付成果是为三个目标群体执行“上床睡觉”和“醒来”场景的全尺寸、可工作的ART原型。我们的跨学科团队将通过迭代设计和评估活动来开发这个复杂的物理数字工件，这些活动认识到工程设计、建筑设计和以人为本的设计是不可分割的。该研究的主要成果是“连续机器人”表面，以及人类移动性的创新方法及其智能物理工件的度量。这项研究的关键影响是智能“建筑机器人”艺术，使人们能够尽可能长时间地呆在家里，即使他们的身体能力随着时间的推移而改变；在更严重的情况下，当使用者和抗逆转录病毒疗法转移到辅助护理机构时，让人们有一些“在家”的感觉。这项工作由国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

In hospitals, technology has become pervasive and indispensable during medical crises. At home, technology proliferates as computerized health monitoring systems and, perhaps in the future, as assistive "humanoid" robots. Meanwhile, our everyday environments remain essentially conventional: low-tech and ill-adaptive to dramatic life changes. This social condition places strain on healthcare and family support systems, and represents a failure of scientists, engineers and architects to support independent living. The overall aim of this effort is to enhance everyday environments with intelligent hardware promoting independent living. This project is focused on a discrete component of an envisioned suite of networked, robotic furniture integrated into existing living environments: an Assistive, Robotic Table [ART]. ART is the hybrid of a typical nightstand and the over-the-bed table found in hospital rooms, comprised of a novel "continuum robotic" table surface that gently folds, extends, and reconfigures to support work and leisure activities; a smart storage volume that physically manages and delivers personal effects; and an accessorized headboard. These components of ART recognize, communicate with, and partly remember each other in interaction with human users and with other components of the suite. The key deliverable for this award is the full-scale, working ART prototype performing "going-to-bed" and "awaking" scenarios for three target groups. Our trans-disciplinary team will develop this complex physical-digital artifact by way of iterative design and evaluation activities that recognize engineering design, architectural design and human-centered design as inseparable. Key outcomes of the research are the "continuum robotic" surface as well as an innovative approach to human mobility and its metrics for intelligent, physical artifacts. The key broader impact of the research is intelligent "architectural robotic" ART, empowering people to remain in their homes for as long as possible, even as their physical capabilities alter over time; and, in more grave circumstances, affording people some semblance of feeling "at home" as user and ART move to assisted care facilities. This work is jointly funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering.