European researchers seeking to create "smart homes" with "domestic robot '

A group of researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) are working to create, in three years, the first prototypes of what will be 'smart homes' that allows older live independently as long as possible and will incorporate a practical robot a robot to be responsible for care of these places and make sure these people do what they should do.

This project, launched recently and has been called 'Intelligent Service Robots for Aging' (KSERA, for its acronym in English), will focus especially in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a disease that, by 2030 will be the third leading cause of death worldwide, according to World Health Organization (WHO) and affects mainly the elderly.

In these houses, the central role it will perform this' domestic robot. " Their work will follow the patient, to know their habits, watch him closely, giving advice audible or decrease the air conditioning so that the patient is comfortable and alert the doctor when the patient is doing something wrong.

In addition, this robot could entertain its owner providing Internet access and video. As explained by Dr. Lydia Meesters, project coordinator, the goal is "to demonstrate what we can do in this area."

These researchers, the Department of Engineering Science and Innovation Zaandam, noted that this new intelligent type of care should not create a cold environment. "The environment should be as homely as possible. In an ideal situation, the only technology that should see the robot, which has to be in contact with all home systems. Moreover, the place must be very homey" said.

To achieve all these objectives, several European groups undertake research in the coming years. For example, Dr. Raymond Cuijpers, also from the Eindhoven University of Technology, examined how the robot could communicate to be understood by the people and vice versa. You will have to be smart and able to anticipate.

In addition, KSERA might even join the same college draft 'RoboEarth', which will build a central sort of global memory for robots that allow the robots 'learn' skills from each other, eg for communicate.

Deserve special attention to ethical issues raised by this robot, which should give good advice to patients, but should not be like a policeman, according to Meesters, who says he "will need to clearly define the limits" of the functions of the robot in situations where, for example, the patient lit cigarette or what kind of information will go to the 'core operations' to protect patient privacy.

The project has a total budget of almost 4 million euros, of which 2.9 million will be contributed by the EU. Among the research groups participating in the project include the Institute Superiore Mario Boella (Italy), Vienna University of Technology, Hamburg University, the Italian company ConSoft ICT, the European Central Institute of Technology (Vienna) and Maccabi Healthcare Services (Israel). The first prototypes of these homes will be built in Israel and Vienna.

Source: Europapress

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