Project description
Smart shopping for persons with disabilities
People with disabilities are the world’s largest minority. In the EU, up to 80 million people experience some form of disability or long-lasting health problems. Even though they are an important part of society, they still face obstacles in various aspects of their daily life. Shopping is one of them. The existing assistive technologies (from wheelchairs to hearing/visual aids) offer ways to mitigate the resulting social inequalities, but shopping creates specific complex obstacles. The EU-funded WiiGO project will fill this gap with the first autonomous, self-driven, robotic device, helping disabled persons with their purchases. It uses the latest technologies, including image recognition software, machine learning and artificial intelligence, to analyse the user’s lifestyle and perform personal preferences.
Objective
Smart and inclusive mobility is important in many societal contexts. People with reduced mobility are proven to be one of the most neglected groups in society. They experience accessibility problems and difficulties in performing routine tasks on a daily basis. For example, what may be a simple activity to many, such as shopping, can become very complex and time consuming.
The WiiGO is an autonomous and self-driven device that follows a specific user or can be programmed to move independently. The robotic system uses the latest technology in image recognition, machine learning and artificial intelligence so that it can track users while identifying and avoiding any obstacle in its way. By functioning as an autonomous shopping cart, the developed solution supports users with reduced mobility, reducing their reliance on other people to help them with day-to-day activities. Given its autonomy and its capacity to guide and record information, the WiiGO is a flexible system that can lend itself to many applications.
Within the overall project, Follow Inspiration intend to optimise the functional design, conduct pilot tests, demonstrating the WiiGO in different retail environments, and fully establish the commercialisation strategy.
Fields of science
- social sciencessocial geographytransportsocial aspects of transport
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringrobotics
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
Programme(s)
- H2020-EU.3.4. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport Main Programme
- H2020-EU.2.1.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
- H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
6230 483 FUNDAO
Portugal
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.