development of intelligent wheeled walkers

development of intelligent wheeled walkers

Introduction

Out-of-home mobility for older people remains to be very necessary for accessing commodities, participating in issues such as cultural, social and physical activities and also ensuring that the elder makes use of neighborhood activities. Mobility also has been established to significantly promote healthy aging among the old as it generally relates to the primary human needs of physical involvement. In order to assess the issues related to the essence of mobility, it is generally important to use two main tests, that is, assessing with a standardized performance test or assessment with a self-report of a particular perceived difficulty in carrying out the specific mobility task. Mobility process decline with an increase in age and under such circumstances, most demanding and complex tasks are generally affected. On a number of occasions, the majority of the old people cope with the paper declining functional capacity through the making of necessary changes in their own respective and unique ways. One of the essential tools which are used to increase mobility on a day to day basis by the old people is the wheeled walkers (WWs). However, not all the old people are satisfied with such wheel workers as such wheels sometimes fail to meet their day to day basis. The challenge of the wheel walkers now requires critical innovation so as to come up with the best products which are used to meet the demands of the paper. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose the development of intelligent wheeled walkers through hence enabling the old people to enjoy mobility issues.

Problem Analysis Faced by Elderly Using Current Wheeled Walkers (The Idea)

Old persons falling while in the process of using wheeled walkers are likely to incur and sustain a series of injuries whenever such person falls down which include series challenges such as the hip fracture. The wheeled walkers are not comfortable and have been designed in such a way that it fails to pay attention to all issues related to the essence of balance. Studies also show that the cases of walking performance have over the years been shown to subsequently decrease in the population the key one being the development of the Parkinson disease which normally occurs whenever the patients are using wheeled walkers. It has further established that a lot of users are not normally satisfied with the usability of the wheeled walker (Graf, 2011). There are a series of accessibility problems which has over the years been identified as the most critical problems and complaints arising due to the use of the wheeled walkers. Furthermore, with respect to the day to day use of wheeled walkers by the older people, opening doors against the direction of walking has over the years become a phenomena challenge.  In such a particular situation, the interference of the wheeled walkers with the door has always required to be managed critically while the essence of balancing is becoming a critical challenge. A side step has over the years been perceived as the appropriate alternative solution but the issues of balance problems have over the years been identified whenever the old people are using the walker.

Scope of the Study

The challenges of the wheel walkers now require critical innovation so as to come up with the best products which are used to meet the demands of the paper. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose the development of intelligent wheeled walkers through hence enabling the old people to enjoy mobility issues.

Discussion (Proposed Intelligent Walker)

In this part, various issues are covered which covers the proposal of intelligent wheeled workers which is basically termed as the I-walker. An intelligent wheeled walker will be ideally designed for wheeled walkers with reduced mobility that is able to move independently. The intelligent walker will be able to use walking forward through the use of its actuators. It is notable that different old people need different degrees of help (Alwan, Rajendran, Ledoux, Huang, Wasson, & Sheth, 2005). Therefore, such old people will require to be helped based on their unique needs and the design should factor in all the necessary issues. In regard to the current assistance strategies which are normally designed in the robotic systems, there should be common use of the assist-as-need control concept which are used to generally encourage the active motion of the diverse affected people.  Given the advancement of the robotic systems that have been developed in the current era, it is important to formulate appropriate intelligent walkers so as to meet the needs of the clients accordingly.

The proposed intelligent wheeled walkers have an intelligent agent layer whose core mandate is to recommend therapists about the issues related to the proper necessary degree of support of each of the patients (Rentschler et. al.  2003). The intelligent wheeled walkers will also have a software platform that ensures that the clinicians are supported to enhance the issues of rehabilitation exercises based on the various mobility needs of the aging population. The intelligent wheeled walkers will have unique systems that enable the aging person to log all the information which comes from the sensors which will be used for later analysis. The data record will basically act as a systematic kind of medical record (Alwan, Rajendran, Ledoux, Huang, Wasson, & Sheth, 2005). Intelligent wheeled walkers can be very useful as it will assess various mobility issues of the elderly person which is helpful in analyzing the health-related issues of the elderly.

The importance of genuine help is the general desire that elderly people in society use their unique personality’s power and decisions as much as possible. The intelligent wheeled walkers will give prospective patients the possibility of gaining more performance and enhancing the day to day mobility’s decisions (Zhou et al.2010). The intelligent wheeled walkers will be fitted with an intelligent decision support system whose major function is to supply the prospective therapists with assistive recommendations in regard to the elder person’s day to day exercise progress during the treatment sessions. The proposed IDSS will furthermore track the process to the advanced level hence ensuring that the victim achieves sustainable health.

The other critical aspect of the intelligent wheeled walkers is that it has alarming systems that keep the caregiver’s essential knowledge to critically save prospective users from getting hurt. The smart braking system also helps the elderly engage in the brakes in any particular situation as the intelligent brakes commonly focus on the walking abilities of the user (Chuy, Hirata, Wang & Kosuge, 2015). The brake system also is effective in such a way that it gives the users the necessary safety in cases of emergencies without the necessary attachment of the active devices such as the servo motors.

The project will use updated robotic technology. Since the proposed intelligent wheeled walkers will be widely distributed to the masses, considering the aspects of economic viability are important. Therefore, affordable materials will be used so as to ensure that the low and middle-level incomers managed to purchase the b intelligent wheeled walkers (Graf, 2011). Different stakeholders need to be involved so that fair pricing is established which ensures that all the aging population afford and uses the system to enable them to increase their day to day mobility and also improve the physical exercise. The tracking systems by the IDSS will also be economical wise as it will help in tracking of series of health challenges and ensuring that the elderly is attended to before the situation worsens.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this work has proposed the State-of-the-Art intelligent walkers. Mobility process decline with an increase in age and under such circumstances, most demanding and complex tasks are generally affected. On a number of occasions, the majority of the old people cope with the paper declining functional capacity through the making of necessary changes in their own respective and unique ways. We proposed robotically innovative ways that will not only boost the mobility but also ensure that the health issues of the aging population are tracked. The systems for the intelligent wheeled walkers have also been highlighted which ideally help the actuators and the essence of gathering the health data which will be used by the health practitioners to make the decisions of the patients. The intelligent wheeled walkers will be fitted with an intelligent decision support system whose major function is to supply the prospective therapists with assistive recommendations in regard to the elder person’s day to day exercise progress during the treatment sessions. It is projected that the proposed intelligent walkers will be very transformative innovations as they are friendly and help the prospective old people. As technology progresses, the system require a series of re-improvement so as to meet the essence of the future changing needs. The improvement includes the software updates which are basically key in keeping the updated information.

Recommendation

The challenge with the problem remains to be the implementation stage and creation of the awareness. It is therefore recommended that in the process, different stakeholders must come together to ensure that the issue becomes successful. The software should also be updated gradually to ensure that the system functions on the basis of modern technology. The process will help them in the recommendation of the messages to the therapists, alerting on the b possible changes that the elderly need at any particular situation. The proper modification of the IDSS is important in the proposed intelligent system. In order to ensure that the machine has the right configurations, the status of the walking inability of the patients should be carefully analyzed. The analysis processes include the extensive evaluation of the style of walking which will be ideally done through the observation of how the elderly walk in a given straight line or not. The series of the walk will be carried out which include the analysis of the optical makers, force platforms and also the 3D-cameras.

References

Alwan, M., Rajendran, P. J., Ledoux, A., Huang, C., Wasson, G. S., & Sheth, P. (2005). Stability            Margin Monitoring in Steering-Controlled Intelligent Walkers for the Elderly. In AAAI      Fall Symposium: Caring Machines (pp. 1-8).

Chuy, O., Hirata, Y., Wang, Z., & Kosuge, K. (2015, July). Motion control algorithms for a new intelligent robotic walker in emulating ambulatory device function. In IEEE International       Conference Mechatronics and Automation, 2005 (Vol. 3, pp. 1509-1514). IEEE.

Graf, B. (2011, September). Reactive navigation of an intelligent robotic walking aid.       In Proceedings 10th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive     Communication. ROMAN 2001 (Cat. No. 01TH8591) (pp. 353-358). IEEE.

Inoue, A., Ryu, U., & NISHIMURA, S. (2012). Caster-walker with intelligent brakes employing             ER fluid composed of the liquid crystalline polysiloxane. In Electrorheological fluids and    magnetorheological suspensions (pp. 23-29).

Martins, M. M., Santos, C. P., Frizera-Neto, A., & Ceres, R. (2012). Assistive mobility devices     focusing on smart walkers: Classification and review. Robotics and Autonomous          Systems, 60(4), 548-56

Mihailidis, A., Elinas, P., Boger, J., & Hoey, J. (2007). An intelligent powered wheelchair to         enable mobility of cognitively impaired older adults: An anticollision system. IEEE     Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 15(1), 136-143.

Rentschler, A. J., Cooper, R. A., Blasch, B., & Boninger, M. L. (2003). Intelligent walkers for      the elderly: Performance and safety testing of VA-PAMAID robotic walker. Journal of           rehabilitation research and development, 40(5), 423-432.

Wasson, G., Sheth, P., Huang, C., & Alwan, M. (2008). Intelligent mobility aids for the elderly.   In Eldercare Technology for Clinical Practitioners (pp. 53-76). Humana Press.

Wu, H. K., Chien, C. W., Jheng, Y. C., Chen, C. H., Chen, H. R., & Yu, C. H. (2011).      Development of Intelligent Walker with Dynamic Support. IFAC Proceedings          Volumes, 44(1), 5980-5984.

Yu, H., Spenko, M., & Dubowsky, S. (2013). An adaptive shared control system for intelligent    mobility aid for the elderly. Autonomous Robots, 15(1), 53-66.

Zhou, W., Xu, L., & Yang, J. (2010, March). An intent-based control approach for intelligent       mobility aid. In 2010 2nd International Asia Conference on Informatics in Control,          Automation and Robotics (CAR 2010) Vo l. 2, pp. 54-57). IEEE.