Exploratory design and evaluation of a homecare teleassistive mobile robotic system

Telehealth assistive technologies for homes constitute a very promising avenue to decrease load on the health care system, to reduce hospitalization period and to improve quality of life. Teleoperated from a distant location, a mobile robot can become a beneficial tool in health applications. However, design issues related to such systems are broad and mostly unexplored (e.g., locomotion and navigation in-home settings, remote interaction and patient acceptability, evaluation of clinical needs and their integration into health care information systems). Designing a safe and effective robotic system for in-home teleassistance requires taking into consideration the complexities of having novice users remotely navigate a mobile robot in a home environment while they interact with patients. This paper presents the progress made by adopting an interdisciplinary and exploratory design methodology to develop a telepresence assistive mobile robot for homecare assistance of elderly people. Preliminary studies using robots, focus groups and interviews allowed us to derive preliminary specifications to design a new mobile robotic system named Telerobot. Telerobot’s locomotion mechanism provides improved mobility when moving on uneven surfaces, helping to provide stable video feed to the user. Its control system is implemented for safe teleoperation. A study involving 10 rehabilitation professionals confirms that the system is usable in-home environments. Analysis of teleoperation strategies used by novice teleoperators suggest that it is essential in a home environment that the teleoperation interface provides the user with a visual feedback of the objects surrounding the robot, their distances relative to the robot and the size of the robot in the environment. Enhanced user interfaces to augment the operator’s perception of the environment were elaborated and tested in controlled conditions. Based on the progress made so far, the paper outlines issues that will be addressed in future work with the objective of coming up with a complete, efficient and usable in-home teleassistance mobile robotic system.