The I-SUPPORT project envisions the development and integration of an innovative, modular, ICTsupported
service robotics system that supports and enhances frail older adults’ motion and force
abilities and assists them in successfully, safely and independently completing the entire sequence of
bathing tasks, such as properly washing their back, their upper parts, their lower limbs, their buttocks and groin,
and to effectively use the towel for drying purposes. Advanced modules of cognition, sensing, context
awareness and actuation will be developed and seamlessly integrated into the service robotics system to
enable the robotic bathing system to adapt to the frail senior citizens population’ abilities and enable frail
senior users to interact with the robotic system in a master-slave mode, thus, performing bathing activities in
an intuitive and safe way. Adaptation and integration of state-of-the-art, cost-effective, soft-robotic arms will
provide the hardware constituents, which, together with advanced human-robot force/compliance control that
will be developed within the proposed project, will form the basis for a safe physical human-robot interaction
that complies with the most up-to-date safety standards. Human behavioural, sociological, safety, ethical
and acceptability aspects, as well as financial factors related to the proposed service robotics system will be
thoroughly investigated and evaluated so that the I-SUPPORT end result is a close-to-market prototype,
applicable to realistic living settings.
The project main specific-implementation objectives are:
• To establish a close collaboration between clinical and technical partners to achieve a user-centred design. Fine tuning of end-user requirements, safety requirements and definition of I-SUPPORT functional specifications. Investigate sociological, gender and ethical considerations
• To create system architecture design. Start developing the subsystems.
• To design system for tracking human posture, movements and actions in the considered application (shower) environment. Start developing the tracking system.
• To research methods and control implementations for direct telemanipulation of the soft arm, for shared control in soft arm tele-manipulation and for interaction control.
• To research methods for robot perception and for recognition of actions, gestures, spoken commands, and the state of a human user.
