HR1 Robot: An Assistant for Healthcare Applications

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Healthcare Technology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Global healthcare systems face increasing strain due to a growing elderly and disabled population.
• Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) offer a potential solution for repetitive and high-intensity healthcare tasks.
• Previous work demonstrated higher participant engagement with SARs compared to Virtual Agents in rehabilitation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To adapt and validate a SAR architecture for the Timed Up and Go (TUG) clinical test.
• To enable automated motion analysis, participant tracking, and successful test completion verification.
• To provide a foundation for future large-scale clinical trials using physical robotic platforms.

Main Methods:

• Extended a previously successful SAR architecture to evaluate lower limb motion and track participants.
• Implemented and simulated the TUG test scenario using Gazebo, including simulated participants and robot interaction.
• Developed an interactive reporting system to present extracted data to specialists.

Main Results:

• The adapted architecture successfully analyzed patient motion and verified TUG test completion in simulations.
• Three validation experiments with 1,000 trials each demonstrated the system's analytical capabilities and measurement accuracy.
• The simulated environment provided a robust platform for validating the SAR's performance in the TUG test.

Conclusions:

• The developed SAR architecture is effective for automated TUG test assessment in simulation.
• This research lays the groundwork for deploying robotic solutions in real-world clinical settings for patient monitoring.
• The publicly available software and documentation facilitate further research and development in assistive robotics.