Robot bedside environments for healthcare

Abstract

Our trans-disciplinary and trans-generational team is realizing home+, an intelligent physical environment featuring a suite of networked, robotic components distributed across any domestic interior. home+ is aimed at increasing the quality of life of both healthy individuals and persons with impaired mobility and cognitive functioning by intelligently supporting their interaction with their home environment. This paper is focused on a key discrete component of the larger home+ project: an Assistive, Robotic Table [ART]. Physically, ART is the hybrid of a typical nightstand found at home and the over-the-bed table universally found in hospital patient rooms, comprised of: a smart storage volume that physically manages and delivers personal effects; a table surface that gently folds, extends, and reconfigures to support work and leisure activities; and an accessorized headboard. These aspects of ART recognize, communicate with, and partly remember each other in interaction with human users and, as we envision, with other home+ components.