Robots Offer the Elderly a Helping Hand
From: Wireless Design Magazine - 06/21/2017

Everybody needs a helping hand when they get older - but in years to come
that helping hand may be attached to a robotic arm.

Robots can be programmed to understand an elderly person's preferences and
habits to detect changes in behaviour: for example if a yoga devotee misses a
class, it will ask why, while if an elderly person falls it will
automatically alert caregivers or emergency services.

Dr Luis Santos from the University of Coimbra in Portugal is working on
making the robot's dialogue as natural and as intuitive as possible and
improving its ability to safely navigate an older person's home, using a
low-cost laser and a camera, and a second prototype will be tested with
elderly people in the coming months. Yet, Dr Santos foresees that these
devices are still four to six years away from commercialisation, at least.

Using a tablet or smartphone to interact, the equipment, which should only
take a day to install, can monitor elements of an elderly person's day-to-day
life, efficiently processing and managing data to allow medical professionals
to keep track of and assess their level of independence via smartphone
notifications.

Read the entire article at:
https://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/news/2017/06/robots-offer-elderly-helping-hand

Links:
GrowMeUp
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/growmeup-project-innovative-service-robot-ambient-assisted-living-environments
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/194088_en.html

Luís Santos
http://home.isr.uc.pt/~luis

Related:
Robot Walker for Elderly People in Public Spaces
https://www.mdtmag.com/news/2015/05/robot-walker-elderly-people-public-spaces

Mobile Robots Could Help the Elderly Live Fuller Lives
https://www.mdtmag.com/news/2015/09/mobile-robots-could-help-elderly-live-fuller-lives

The Prototype Robot Helping Elderly People Stay Independent
https://www.ecnmag.com/news/2016/03/prototype-robot-helping-elderly-people-stay-independent

Home Health Monitors Evolving to Deliver More Than Just Emergency Responses
https://www.mdtmag.com/news/2016/06/home-health-monitors-evolving-deliver-more-just-emergency-responses