Elderly care robot to recognize and alert emergency situations

Abstract

As the number of elderly increases, greater attention must be given to how they or their caregivers deal with emergencies. This paper describes an automated tracking, fall detection, and emergency recovery system for elderly people, and shows that an efficient Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) can react to emergencies and abnormal behaviors for at-risk populations. Our assistant robot uses position data provided by Ultra-WideBand (UWB) technology and motion sensor information to detect potentially dangerous situations for elderly people. Twenty-eight professional caregivers are asked to comment regarding benefits and improvements for our system.