Meal assistant robot with omnidirectional mobile plate

Abstract

Currently, the population of people with disabilities who need nursing care in Japan is about 5.2 million. They are facing troubles in daily life and require care such as meals, bathing, excretion and walking. Among them, it is extremely difficult for a physically handicapped person with disabilities in the upper limbs to take their own meals and care needs to be taken. People who need nursing care in consuming a meal are difficult to eat at their own pace. This is a factor that degrades the quality of life (QOL) for those who need nursing care. Also, because the number of caregivers is insufficient, the burden per caregiver is increasing. In order to improve such as a situation, development of a meal assistant robot has been promoted. However, many robots are articulated, and there was a danger of vibration and runaway. In this paper, a meal assistant robot combining an omnidirectional mobile plate and an orthogonal coordinate type is proposed. By using an orthogonal coordinate type, meal support can be performed with a simple and stable movement. Omni-wheel is used for omnidirectional movable plate. By using this robot, it is possible to carry out stable meal and meal support without having to organize the food before consuming.