Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
sensors. In other words, the actual concept of smart sensor will be carried through to
the silicon chip.
Posture and
movement
support
One of the main topics in which sensors and actuators have been integrated to help
elderly people during their daily activities is the reduction in the risk of falls. From the
literature it is possible to distinguish:
small and powerful sensors/algorithms aimed at gathering information from
the state of the subjects (e.g. movement, temperature, heart rate) during daily
activities (e.g. walking and sleeping);
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actuators aimed at supplying energy while subjects, especially seniors, carry
out motor tasks.
The main limit of these systems is the low level of integrability. In particular,
although there several examples of sensor network worn by subjects that are useful in
detecting their state in real time, these are not integrated with devices that are able to
help people when they need to recover their balance control. On the other hand, several
devices, exoskeleton-like, have been developed to provide power supply when a lack of
balance occurs, but these devices usually work in structured and small environments -
sometimes they are only integrated in a treadmill-based platform - such that they
cannot be adopted during daily activities.
In the next few years, the integration of both sensors and actuators should be made
into wearable devices that are able to gather information from the subjects, analyse
their balance control and in cases of lack of balance control, supply energy to restore
the balance. At this time these devices could still work in structured environments.
Currently, solutions should be found to make these devices work in unstructured
environments. Then, reduction of the energy required by the mechatronic components
and the development of wearable and rechargeable power suppliers could represent the
main roadmap for research.
5.3.4.
“Artificial beings” (service and companion robots)
Service robot development is defined by the EURON Consortium as the art of
integrating technologies and embedding systems into existing smart environments in
order to provide services useful for human daily life (EURON, 2004). Embedded
agents and robots will be contained in such smart spaces and will be able to act for and
with humans. Smart environments will proactively assist people and will be
personalized in response to the occupant's presence and behaviour and to the normal
activities related to work, education, entertainment or healthcare.
A large variety of service-robot applications with significant installation numbers
seems now to be within reach. The main benefits from the introduction of this kind of
technologies in the AAL context will be identified as:
time saving in daily repetitive work,
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having a companion and a servant/assistant,
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personal robot adaptation to individual needs,
exercising robots,
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medical support,
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