Sensors and Robotic Environment for Care of the Elderly

This paper describes some development work of a system for elder care configured around sensors and robotic environment. A few sub-systems have been amalgamated to achieve the desired objective. The integrated system is able to support people who wish to live alone but, because of old age, ill health or disability, are at risk and are a cause of concern for their family and friends. The first part of the integrated system, named Selective Activity Monitoring (SAM) system, works on the principle of using sensor units (SU) to monitor various electrical appliances in a house. Rules, based on the daily activities of a person, are defined for the appliances to be monitored. The system can detect violation of the rules and generate an alarm. The rules are flexible and can be user-defined. The second part of the system is a low-cost Physiological Parameters Monitoring (PPM) system, called Medicmate, which can be used to monitor physiological parameters of a human subject such as body temperature, blood oxygen level and heart rate. It can also detect a fall. The third part of the system is a Web-enabled, robot-based vision system. The robot, operating in a home environment, can be remote controlled by a computer over the Internet. The camera, mounted on the robot, can be used to send a picture of the affected area.