PRE2016 1 Groep1

3. Work done so far

3.1 Week 2 presentatie 1 groep 1

Problem and subject/solution: Our current society is facing the societal dilemma of ageing, given that the ratio of care takers and caregivers is out of balance and will be expanded even more in the future. Considering the fact that technological advancements in health care are taking place, such as better treatment for diseases, also contributes to the increase of elderly people, because their lifespan is extended. Due to this, there will be lack of care givers in the future and therefore it will almost be inevitable that robots are partially taking over tasks. These tasks can not be of great complexity of course, as robots are unable to think autonomous like humans. From this point of view, we have come up with a good use for robots in which the relatively few human caregivers left in the future can focus on more important and risky care tasks which should not be given in the hands of robots, like for instance the use of robots in operating theatres. Our idea will be realized by the use of a ‘Lift Robot’ which will transfer patients, who are not able to relocate themselves anymore, in hospitals and nursing homes by lifting them. The patients can be transferred between for instance a bed and a chair or to places like restrooms etc. However, unlike already existing patient lifts, our ‘Lift Robot’ can work autonomous and will be able to interact with the patient during the transportation by using facial and speech recognition software. Due to this, the care robot is able to react to the patient’s behavior and can adapt or stop it’s action whenever the patient expresses he is uncomfortable or whatever. The human-robot interaction will play an important role in our design cycle. The ‘Lift Robot’ is beneficial for all sorts of groups. The human care givers for example can benefit from it, because they do not have to lift patients themselves anymore which is better for their own health by preventing back pain from heavy lifting and they do not need to assist the transportation anymore which is necessary with the current patient lifts so they can spare precious time and focus on their other care tasks. The health care system itself will also benefit from this technology, because a robot is able to work twenty four seven, it’s indefatigable. Further it does not need a salary to live. Another advantage is that more patients can be helped by human care givers when some parts of their tasks are taken over by robots.

Objective

The main objective of the project is to improve the interaction between a patient and a care robot. To be more specific, it can be divided into three sub-objectives.

The first one is regarding facial expression recognition, which is closely connected to the recognition of certain emotions. We will try to find out what techniques are already used. Also we will go further into the principle of Eckman’s faces, where there are a few basic emotions. If there is not an already existing technology, a new one has to be given thought to. This is important in order to make the robot able to detect facial expressions. Once these expressions or emotions are detected by the care robot, it can react properly to let the patient feel more comfortable. This reaction can vary from a verbal response to a physical action, where the care robot adjusts its lifting mechanism accordingly.

Secondly, it is of great importance to know what the general needs of patients are to feel comfortable as well as the needs of the nurses, so they are able to deliver good and comfortable care. By interviewing these groups of people certain knowledge will be gained, which should also be taken into account by designing the robotic system.

Which leads to the third and final sub-objective, where the optimal design specifications are discussed. On the one hand this includes the mechanical aspect of a comfortable and safe lifting movement and on the other hand the specific look of the care robot; whether it should be more human like and risking that the ‘uncanny valley’ becomes an issue or designing it in a more abstract way.

Use cases

This subject is in many ways related to USE-aspects. First of all there are many different stakeholders and users. The primary users are ofcourse the patients and the nurses. The secondary users are the people who pay for the robot, in this case the hospital management and the government. Also the family members of the patients are secondary users The tertiary users are the maintenance people and cleaners of the hospital. Because they have to take care of the robot, or work around it. The preferences of all these users have to be taken into account. For instance, the patients want the robot to be comforting, while the nurses want it easy to be used. The hospital management wants the robot to be made as cheap as possible and the maintenance people prefer the important components easy to repair or replace. This can lead to conflicts since it can be difficult to take all these preferences into account at the same time. We mainly focus on the preferences of the primary users. The main question is how you let a robot assist them without affecting their dignity and making them uncomfortable. An important aspect is the interaction between the robot and the patient. Do the patients want to be approached by the robot first or do they want to ask the robot for help themselves? Another aspect is how the robot will understand if he’s hurting the patient or not. Maybe he can ask the patient or scan their faces to see if they are in pain. But in this case another question arises: What if the patient is not able to communicate in that way anymore. Maybe the patient had a stroke, which paralyzed a part of his face, and thus the robot cannot read the face anymore. The patient could also has lost the ability to speak clearly to communicate with the robot. These problems should all be taken into account.

Approach

By creating a clear approach, the list of objectives can be answered with back up of different sources. Each method contains a brief description of the task that will be performed.

Interviews One of the objectives is verifiying what kind of needs both patients and care takers have. This will be tested by interviewing a number of nursary homes and private individuals, thus assesing a varierty of problems that can occur, as different institutions can have different sets of problems.The results of these interviews will be taken into account when the design of our ‘’Lift Robot’’ is made.

List of nursary homes around Eindhoven ( https://www.zorgkaartnederland.nl/zorginstelling )

Experiments Furthermore, to test the recognition of emotions, as this is one of the key concepts that will make our ‘’Lift Robot’’ unique, we will conduct an experiment. This experiment makes use of a webcam and software, which is able to spot the micro-expressions of the face of an user, and validate in what state the user is currently. If the outcome of this experiment is postive, thus being a good method to recognize the emotions of the patient, we will use it in our ‘’Lift Robot’’. This makes it possible to tell if the patient is at ease or experiencing a form of discomfort, where the ‘’Lift Robot’’ will react upon.

Companies with software: -> http://emovu.com/e/ -> Software Marissa

Literature study As some of the information of our subject may already been researched, we will conduct a study in literature, by assesing databases on scientific research like the library of the TU/E and Focus. This will give us a better idea about current robots that can perform a similair task and get an idea of their imperfections.

Milestones In the upcoming week this approach will be extended with milestones, setting dates for each of our methods and dividing the tasks so that we will make optimal use of our time.

Conclusion: We think the ‘Lift Robot’ will be an advantage for all kind of groups. Although users can have diverse opinions about the use of robots during the interaction with humans. Some fear there will be less human personal contact, others are more comfortable with the human-robot interaction, because it increases their independence on other humans and streamlines the care process. Our believe is that using this system will make human caregivers be able to work more efficiently. So our goal will be to satisfy as many stakeholders as possible, but the main focus will lie the preferences of the primary users. Of course it should be comfortable for the users by improving the interaction between patient and care robot. To do so we will look at current state of the art by a literature study to complete our design. We will also be taking into account the opinion of the users to make it as comfortable as possible by taking interviews and we will test facial/emotion recognition by experiments. Further, in the upcoming week this approach will be extended with milestones, setting dates for each of our methods and dividing the tasks so that we will make optimal use of our time. We strongly believe that our ‘Lift Robot’ can be usefull for human beings.