Hobbit, a care robot supporting independent living at home: First prototype and lessons learned

doi:10.1016/j.robot.2014.09.029

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Volume 75, Part A, January 2016, Pages 60-78

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2014.09.029 Get rights and content

Highlights

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We present a care robot for aging in place by means of fall prevention/detection.
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Detailed description of sensor set-up, hardware, and the multimodal user interface.
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Detailed description of major software components and implemented robot tasks.
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Proof-of-concept user study (49 user) on usability, acceptance, and affordability.

Abstract

One option to address the challenge of demographic transition is to build robots that enable aging in place. Falling has been identified as the most relevant factor to cause a move to a care facility. The Hobbit project combines research from robotics, gerontology, and human–robot interaction to develop a care robot which is capable of fall prevention and detection as well as emergency detection and handling. Moreover, to enable daily interaction with the robot, other functions are added, such as bringing objects, offering reminders, and entertainment. The interaction with the user is based on a multimodal user interface including automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech, gesture recognition, and a graphical touch-based user interface. We performed controlled laboratory user studies with a total of 49 participants (aged 70 plus) in three EU countries (Austria, Greece, and Sweden). The collected user responses on perceived usability, acceptance, and affordability of the robot demonstrate a positive reception of the robot from its target user group. This article describes the principles and system components for navigation and manipulation in domestic environments, the interaction paradigm and its implementation in a multimodal user interface, the core robot tasks, as well as the results from the user studies, which are also reflected in terms of lessons we learned and we believe are useful to fellow researchers.

Introduction

Because of the fact that older adults prefer to independently live on their own at home as long as possible [1], the necessity of developing assistive technology is increasing. However, older adults themselves experience challenges in maintaining their home [2] and the need of assistive technology can be perceived as stigmatization [3].

Care robots are considered as one option to support independent aging in place. In recent years the development of this type of robot assistance quickly increased. Several research projects were focusing on the development of care robots for older adults, which can reduce loneliness, support in household tasks, and connect users to the outside world (e.g. KSERA [4], DOMEO [5], Cogniron [6], Companionable [7], SRS [8], Care-O-Bot [9], Accompany [10], HERB [11]). A large number of studies on the impact of care robots on older adults (a thorough overview can be found in [12]) demonstrate their positive effects and it also seems that the elderly in the Western society are open for this kind of technology.

However, most of the developed robotic platforms are still research platforms, which did not enter private households as robotic products so far. Only pet-like social companion robots with limited (but essential) care functionality, such as the seal-like robot Paro [13], are available in the market for end users. To our conviction, one of the biggest challenges is still the development of a multifunctional care robot for independent living, which is affordable for end users.

Therefore our aim is to develop an affordable multifunctional care robot that sustainably enables independent aging in place. According to gerontological studies, falls are the leading cause of injuries among elders. EU-wide 30% of people over 65 and 50% of those over 80 years fall each year and falls are the main reason for moving to a care facility. Subsequently, our main goal is to develop a care robot which prevents falls by picking up objects from the floor, detecting falls by patrolling through the apartment, and handling emergencies by calling relatives or in last instance the ambulance.

Many questions about how a care robot can be developed that offers high usability and user acceptance, but is affordable for its intended target group are still unanswered. What is the right compromise between user expectations and system capabilities? How can existing hardware and software be used to develop a robotic product and not another research platform? Which interaction paradigms are really beneficial for older adults? To address these challenges, we designed and developed the Hobbit robot.

In this article we present results from the development of the first Hobbit robot prototype (subsequently called PT1, see Fig. 1) and the first set of user trials in a controlled laboratory setting in order to explore the reception of Hobbit from its target user group. Section 3 describes the overall system, including the mobile platform, the sensor system, the arm and gripper, and the multimodal user interface. The components are described in Section 4 expanding on navigation, human detection and tracking, gesture recognition, grasping, and object learning and recognition. Next, the robot tasks are presented in detail in Section 5 followed by a description of the user study and its results on perceived usability, acceptance, and affordability from the perspective of potential end users. Throughout the article lessons learned from the PT1 development are presented for all sub domains. Thereby we want to share our experiences with fellow researchers and make our knowledge available in the research community as a stepping stone towards affordable robotic products for private users.

Section snippets

Motivation and contribution

State-of-the-art robots which should increase the quality of life for older adults can be divided into three main categories: (1) social companion robots, (2) household service robots, and (3) telepresence systems. Social companion robots for elderly should decrease the feeling of loneliness and are often designed in a way to substitute real pets. The most prominent example is Paro. Paro [13] is a seal type mental commitment robot. It has been developed for those who cannot take care of real

Platform

The lower part of the Hobbit system is a mobile platform (see Fig. 2) with differential drive kinematics. It has a circular cross-section with a diameter of about 45 cm. This combination allows the robot to turn on the spot within its footprint, which is important when navigating in narrow and cluttered domestic environments. The platform houses the batteries (24 V, 18 Ah) that power all electrical components of the robot and currently allow for an average autonomy time of three hours. An

Components

In order to fulfill its tasks as a care robot, Hobbit must be able to safely navigate in a domestic environment, detect and track humans, recognize gestures, and grasp objects. In this section we describe the major software components of Hobbit and the algorithms used to achieve the required functionality.

Robot tasks

In the development of the Hobbit robot we followed a user-centered design approach, meaning that the system design should be adapted to the needs and expectations of the potential user group. Contrary to participatory design, where design decisions are made together with representative target users, we followed an interdisciplinary approach where final system design decisions were made together with experts from robotics, gerontology, and industrial design. As primary target user group of

First user studies

First empirical user studies in a controlled laboratory setting with the Hobbit PT1 were carried out in Austria, Greece, and Sweden with a total of 49 primary participants. The studies were based on six representative interaction scenarios that should demonstrate the core tasks. The aim of the study was threefold: (1) exploring the Mutual Care interaction paradigm with two experimental conditions (see [47]), (2) exploring the impact of different impairment grades on the usability of Hobbit

Conclusions and outlook

In this article we presented results from the development of the first Hobbit robot prototype (PT1) and the first set of user trials in a controlled laboratory setting focusing on the development of a socially assistive care robot for older adults, which has the potential to promote aging in place and to postpone the need to move to a care facility. Hobbit is designed especially for fall detection and prevention (e.g. by picking up objects from the floor, patrolling through the apartment and by

Acknowledgments

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement No. 288146, Hobbit and from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under grant agreement T623-N23, V4HRC.

David Fischinger is a researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the Vienna University of Technology at the “Automation and Control Institute” since 2010. His main research interests are robotic grasping, machine learning and vision for robotics. He graduated in Technical Mathematics at the Vienna University of Technology in 2005. In 2007, he achieved Master’s degrees in “Computer Science Management” and in “Computational Intelligence” (Informatics)—both with honors. From 2007 to 2010 he worked as

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