Collaborative Research: NRI: Remotely Operated Reconfigurable Walker Robots for Eldercare

在美国，超过80%死于COVID-19的人年龄在65岁或以上，其中许多人是养老院的居民和工作人员，因为目前的面对面老年人护理做法在这些设施中造成了许多聚集性感染病例。这一流行病还严重影响了上门护士、家庭护理、日托和其他面对面的老年人护理服务，因此许多老年人被孤立，很少或根本没有与更广泛的社区互动，这往往导致精神和心理障碍。 由于目前的护理做法和系统已被证明是如此脆弱，如果可以通过其他手段补充亲自照顾老年人，那么需要这种服务的人将得到更好的服务。 该项目探索了一种基于远程医疗和机器人技术的替代远程护理方法，旨在通过人员和设备网络在个人家庭和机构中安全地提供优质护理服务。行动是老年人独立生活必须保留的基本功能，但行动辅助需要身体互动，目前依赖于亲自护理。这项研究将开发一种多功能，可重新配置的移动辅助机器人，由护理人员和临床工作人员远程操作和监督，他们可以通过机器人系统与用户进行交流，这项工作包括三个方面：机器人在必要时改变其足迹的能力，使其能够通过狭窄的门道，并在杂乱的住宅环境中工作，同时在日常生活中提供无缝支持诸如运输和从坐到站的转换的活动;通过改变到不可倾翻的配置来保护具有下降的平衡问题的用户免于可能导致在地板上受到严重撞击的福尔斯跌落的能力;以及为远程护理人员提供帮助，以安全和参与的方式与老年人进行身体互动，因为大多数身体援助程序需要护理接受者的合作态度。 通过远程护理人员的参与，机器人可以监控用户的行为和精神状态，并指导他们完成辅助程序，以便他们更好地参与并变得合作。 人类受试者测试将在康复医院进行，以在现实环境中演示和验证新技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Over 80% of people who have died of COVID-19 in the United States were of age 65 or older, and many of them were nursing home residents and staff, because current in-person eldercare practices caused numerous cluster infection cases in these facilities. The pandemic has also severely impacted visiting nurses, home care, day care, and other in-person eldercare services, and as a result many seniors have been left isolated with little or no interaction with the broader community, which often leads to mental and psychological disorders. Because current nursing practices and systems have proven to be so vulnerable, those in need of such services would be better served if in-person eldercare could be supplemented by other means. This project explores an alternative remote-nursing approach based on tele-medicine and robotic technologies, which aims to deliver quality care services safely in individual homes and institutions through a network of people and equipment.Mobility is a fundamental function that elderly people must retain to live independently, but mobility assistance requires physical interactions and is currently dependent on in-person care. This research will develop a multi-functional, reconfigurable, mobility-assistance robot that is operated and supervised remotely by caregivers and clinical staff who can communicate with the user through the robotic system, the work to include three thrusts: the ability of the robot to alter its footprint when necessary to enable it to fit through narrow doorways and work in cluttered residential environments while providing seamless support in daily activities such as transportation and sit-to-stand transition; the ability to protect a user with declining balance issues from falls that might result in taking a hard hit on a floor by changing to an untippable configuration; and providing remote caregivers with help in executing physical interactions with older adults in a safe and engaging manner, because most physical assistance procedures entail a cooperative attitude from the care recipient. With a remote caregiver in the loop, the robot can monitor the behavior and mental state of the user and guide them through the assistive procedure so that they may be better engaged and become cooperative. Human subject tests will be conducted at a rehabilitation hospital to demonstrate and verify the new technology in a realistic setting.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.