A Little Help From High-Tech Devices
Robots, electronic wheelchairs and more could become caregiver aids

(HealthDay News) -- With a little help from robots, the elderly and disabled just might be able to stay in their own homes longer.

That's the hope of scientists who are developing what are called assistive devices that could handle or help out with various aspects of caregiving.

Rod Grupen, director of the Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics at the University of Massachusetts, said there's an increasing need for this type of technology. He cited U.S. Census figures that predict the number of Americans older than 65 will double by 2030, and two-thirds of those seniors will require some form of long-term care. However, there's expected to be a shortage of nurses and home health-care aides to look after them.

Chronic diseases disproportionately affect older adults and are associated with disability, diminished quality of life and increased costs for health care and long-term care, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today, about 80 percent of older adults have at least one chronic condition, and 50 percent have at least two, the CDC says.

That's why eldercare experts have their eye on the development of devices such as the uBOT-5. The robot can carry out simple tasks while monitoring the home environment and can even call 911 if it detects an emergency, such as a person falling down. It also offers video Internet hook-up so that distant relatives can check up on seniors.

"So, if I'm at work and it's lunch hour and I want to poke in on Dad, I can get on the Internet and basically 'step inside' the robot," Grupen told HealthDay.

The co-inventor of the uBOT-5 said an authorized user could move the fully-mobile robot around to do some cleaning or other tasks, such as retrieving a dropped TV remote, or enable virtual visits. The user's face appears via video on the front of the robot's head.

"Your granddaughter on the West Coast can get into the robot and visit with you outside in the garden, you can have a two-way conversation with audio/video, hold hands and go show them the flowers you just planted," Grupen said.

Another device under development is a voice-commanded "autonomous wheelchair" that uses high-tech scanning software to navigate through hospitals or nursing homes. When it's introduced to a new setting, the wheelchair needs to be given a verbal tour of hallways, rooms and other features.

"You talk to it like you'd talk to a new person, a new nurse. And as a side effect of the thing being walked through the facility once or twice, the wheelchair has now been demonstrated a route between all the points," co-developer Seth Teller, co-leader of the Robotics, Vision and Sensor Networks Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, told HealthDay.

Then, after the wheelchair learns the layout, a person need only tell it where to go and the wheelchair will carry them there.

At Georgia Tech, researchers are creating home-care robots based on service dogs.

"We're using service dogs to answer three important questions," team leader Charlie Kemp, told HealthDay. "What tasks would be good for a [home] robot to perform? How should people interact with the robot, to tell it to do these tasks? And how can the robot actually perform these tasks, given the complexities of the home?"

The researchers have developed a robot that can perform tasks such as opening drawers, turning doorknobs and operating light switches. A laser pointer is used to tell the robot what to do.

While it may not be as capable as a great service dog, the robot could prove to be an adequate substitute, Kemp said. He noted that there are long waiting lists for service dogs, which cost about $16,000.

"I think there's a real need, so the hope is that people will support this sort of work," Kemp said. "Then we'll be able to deliver these things when people need them."

On the Web

To learn more about assistive devices, visit the U.S. Administration on Aging.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Rod Grupen, Ph.D., professor, computer science, and director, Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.; Seth Teller, Ph.D., professor and co-head, Robotics, Vision and Sensor Networks Group, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.; Charlie Kemp, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov)
Author: Robert Preidt
Publication Date: Nov. 30, 2009
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