Step up and follow the exercise routine with a robotic personal trainer Exercise is good for you at all ages, but older adults are concerned about their safety. EU research has developed a robot ‘friend’ that helps them overcome their reservations. Digital Economy © ACANTO Despite its recognised benefits, most older adults do not engage in regular physical activity. “To abate some of the most important barriers to this healthy behaviour, the ACANTO project has developed a friendly robot walker, the FriWalk,” explains Dr Luigi Palopoli, lead project researcher. Intelligent personal trainer with social awareness FriWalk can localise itself, sense its surroundings and plan safe routes specifically geared to the user’s requirements. The robot also supports the execution of a training programme, searches for muscular or gait problems, and reports them into the user profile so that doctors and physicians can plan the best physiotherapy. In order to encourage the elderly to use FriWalk, the second component is a social network that engages them in compelling activities with a social dimension. This social network is based on information that is extracted from physical observation of the user’s behaviour, and it is therefore called the cyberphysical social network (CPSN). FriWalk in action “There is a whole bunch of nice outcomes so it’s hard to single out our key results,” Dr Palopoli says. “However, if I had to choose one, developing an integrated robot with a technology readiness level sufficient to test it in a real-life environment, with little technical supervision, is a result beyond my expectations,” he adds enthusiastically. The device has grown from integrated work of different multi-talented partners. A clinical pilot with frail patients in the University Hospital of Getafe, Madrid produced very promising results. Katerina Illustrating the ideas and philosophy behind FriWalk is the case of Katerina, a 73-year-old traumatised by a previous fall. Accompanying a cut in exercise level, she has become a little socially withdrawn despite a good level of social awareness. The tablet suggests a shopping trip, which incorporates running small errands for people, a task that will make Katerina feel useful to other people. The tablet gives her all the help she needs regarding bus to take and the most convenient shops as rated by the CPSN. Due to Katerina’s profile and her doctor’s prescription, FriWalk is confident she could reach her destination, walking 1 km in total, in half an hour. The haptic interface stimulates the correct stepping rhythm while FriWalk adapts the inertia felt by Katerina to her level of tiredness. To complete Katerina’s social requirements, FriWalk has arranged for her to visit a nice café on the way home where she will meet a potential friend who uses the same device and has a similar profile. Challenges and team resilience The loss of one partner along the way (a company that defaulted) had a major impact on work organisation. “The consortium had to brace up and, at the end, produced a wonderful display of resilience,” notes Dr Palopoli. From a technical point of view, the key problems were related to producing an interface suiting the needs of frail patients. Many iterations were required to make the sensing system operational in any type of environment and to meet the strong safety issues raised by the Spanish Ministry of Health. Future steps for FriWalk Following the project end, ACANTO has submitted patent requests and the team is waiting for the results as well as planning a product certification phase. “The most logical business development would be to perform these tasks under the umbrella of a start-up. We are working in this direction,” Dr Palopoli concludes. Keywords ACANTO, FriWalk, social, robot, friend, exercise, cyberphysical social network
