Whole-Body Robotic Simulator of the Elderly for Evaluating Robotic Devices for Nursing Care

Abstract

This paper describes the development of whole-body robotic simulator of elderly person for evaluating robotics devices for nursing care. To improve the quality of life of the elderly persons, physical assistance, such as transfer assistance, movement assistance, toileting assistance is important. It is also important to reduce the workload of the care givers in the aging society. In recent years, assistive robotic devices for nursing care have been developed and commercialized for such purposes. However, such assistive robotic devices have not become popular in the care facilities yet. One of the reason is that it is still difficult to evaluate the effects of the devices on the care receivers and care givers. Especially it is necessary to quantitatively evaluate the effect of the devices on the human body in the viewpoint of safety and comfort. We have been developing a whole-body robotic system to simulate the pose and motion of elderly person. The purpose of the system is to realize quantitative physical evaluation of robotics devices for nursing care on the human body. Experimental results of preliminary evaluation of assistive robotic devices are also indicated.