Affordable Mobile Robots for the Elderly

February 22, 2023 updated by: University of Pennsylvania

PFI: BIC Affordable and Mobile Assistive Robots for Elderly Care

This project develops and tests the use of service robots to track health of the elderly over time. The objectives are to develop a low-cost mobile manipulator capable of a limited set of elder- relevant manipulation tasks (e.g. picking up dropped items). The investigators will visualize and model the use of the service robot during deployments at an elder care facility. Feedback from focus groups with elders and clinicians will inform the necessary engineering innovation.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The goal is to develop in three stages a new affordable robot with the participation of Living Independently for Elders (LIFE) members and clinicians. The robot will be developed by a multidisciplinary team headed by Dr. Yim at University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) (PI), Dr. Tessa Lau at Savioke Corp, and Drs. Johnson and Cacchionne at UPENN PM&R and UPENN Nursing, respectively. The aim is to build a low-cost robot platform that will focus on the simple, but key, repetitive, data-driven tasks that robots do well. Rather than attempt to create a robot helper that mimics humans, the aim is to free human caregivers from the time-consuming tasks that robots can accomplish with facility, thereby allowing humans to focus on tasks that humans do best (i.e. human contact). Participatory reviews of the developed prototypes will be completed at each stage (each year) with the LIFE members and clinicians. There are three research questions the investigators hope to answer all while building an effective system to synergistically satisfy the business needs:

R1) Although activities of daily living (ADLs) for elder health have previously been documented and categorized, no research has been done to characterize them from the perspective of their feasibility of automation using an affordable mobile manipulation robot. How can known ADLs be characterized according to how much they would benefit from robotic assistance given varying levels of robot capabilities (mobility, limited manipulation, full manipulation)?

R2) A manipulator arm must be safe, affordable, and performant enough to assist in ADLs for elder heath. What new breakthroughs are required to develop new manipulation technology that satisfies these constraints?

R3) A data-driven service robotics What are the concomitant key usability and acceptance of service features required system has the potential to affect elder health in a positive way. How can predictive service robotics best be used to maintain and improve elder health? Which specific robot behaviors have the most impact on elders' well-being?

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

53

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19145
        • Mercy Living Independently for Elders (L.I.F.E) - West Philadelphia

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Elders, age 55 and older,who are members of Living Independently For Elders (LIFE) run by the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing and their caregivers.
  • Elders at Kearsley or Mercy Douglas who are 62 years and older, in imminent risk of a nursing home placement, attends LIFE center daily (day program), able to have activities of daily living (ADL) needs met by caregivers, able to pay required rent for apartment, and able to function safely in community with other elders.
  • Savioke may conduct additional focus groups at The Forum at Rancho San Antonio a Continuing Care Retirement Community located in Silicon Valley.
  • Clinicians will be recruited from the clinical staff working at LIFE, Kearsley, and Mercy Douglas which consists of primary care physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, licensed social workers, and physical and occupational therapists.
  • Caregivers will be recruited from the clinical staff working at LIFE, Kearsley, and Mercy Douglas which consists of certified nursing assistants (CNAs).

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to cognitively give consent
  • Unable to understand the study or refuse to comply with procedures

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Aim 1 (Survey): Elders
Observe Elders, Clinicians and Caregiver's survey, interview and observational responses to stage-wise experimental deployments of a mobile service robot - 1st concept (elders, clinicians, caregivers), 2nd mobile base (elders only), and 3rd mobile base with arm in daily supportive tasks (elders only)
Other: Survey
Observe Elders, Clinicians and Caregiver's survey, interview and observational responses to stage-wise experimental deployments of a mobile service robot.
Experimental: Aim 1 (Survey): Clinicians
Observe Elders, Clinicians and Caregiver's survey, interview and observational responses to stage-wise experimental deployments of a mobile service robot - 1st concept (elders, clinicians, caregivers), 2nd mobile base (elders only), and 3rd mobile base with arm in daily supportive tasks (elders only)
Other: Survey
Observe Elders, Clinicians and Caregiver's survey, interview and observational responses to stage-wise experimental deployments of a mobile service robot.
Experimental: Aim 1 (Survey): Caregivers
Observe Elders, Clinicians and Caregiver's survey, interview and observational responses to stage-wise experimental deployments of a mobile service robot - 1st concept (elders, clinicians, caregivers), 2nd mobile base (elders only), and 3rd mobile base with arm in daily supportive tasks (elders only)
Other: Survey
Observe Elders, Clinicians and Caregiver's survey, interview and observational responses to stage-wise experimental deployments of a mobile service robot.
Experimental: Aim 2: Deployment 1 (Elders)
Observe Elders, Clinicians and Caregiver's survey, interview and observational responses to stage-wise experimental deployments of a mobile service robot - 1st concept (elders, clinicians, caregivers), 2nd mobile base (elders only), and 3rd mobile base with arm in daily supportive tasks (elders only)
Device: Mobile Service Robot
The goal is to build a low-cost mobile service robot with an arm that will focus on the simple, but key, repetitive, data-driven tasks that robots do well. Rather than attempt to create a robot helper that mimics humans, the goal is to free human caregivers from the time-consuming tasks that robots can accomplish with facility, thereby allowing humans to focus on tasks that humans do best (i.e. human contact).
Experimental: Aim 2: Deployment 2 (Elders)
Observe Elders, Clinicians and Caregiver's survey, interview and observational responses to stage-wise experimental deployments of a mobile service robot - 1st concept (elders, clinicians, caregivers), 2nd mobile base (elders only), and 3rd mobile base with arm in daily supportive tasks (elders only)
Device: Mobile Service Robot
The goal is to build a low-cost mobile service robot with an arm that will focus on the simple, but key, repetitive, data-driven tasks that robots do well. Rather than attempt to create a robot helper that mimics humans, the goal is to free human caregivers from the time-consuming tasks that robots can accomplish with facility, thereby allowing humans to focus on tasks that humans do best (i.e. human contact).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Usability Scale for Deployment 1
Time Frame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) assistance, feasibility of automation of manipulator and arm measured by surveys and observation of participants in focus group. Usability of robot system for walking and water delivery tasks. Usability survey scored from 0 to 100, with 100 being the most favorable response. A number greater than 68 is good.
1 session, about 1 hour in length
Usability Scale for Deployment 2
Time Frame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) assistance, feasibility of automation of manipulator and arm measured by surveys and observation of participants in focus group. Usability of robot system for walking and water delivery tasks. Usability survey scored out of 7. Users ranked tasks on a scale of 1-7, 7 being very usable.
1 session, about 1 hour in length
Sociability Scale for Deployment 1
Time Frame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) assistance, feasibility of automation of manipulator and arm measured by surveys and observation of participants in focus group. Sociability of robot system for walking and water delivery tasks. Sociability survey scored from 0 to 100, with 100 being the most favorable response. A number greater than 68 is good.
1 session, about 1 hour in length
Sociability Scale for Deployment 2
Time Frame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) assistance, feasibility of automation of manipulator and arm measured by surveys and observation of participants in focus group. Sociability of robot system for walking and water delivery tasks. Sociability survey scored out of 7. Users ranked tasks on a scale of 1-7, 7 being very usable.
1 session, about 1 hour in length
Acceptability Scale for Deployment 1
Time Frame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) assistance, feasibility of automation of manipulator and arm measured by surveys and observation of participants in focus group. Acceptability of robot system for walking and water delivery tasks. Acceptability survey scored from 0 to 100, with 100 being the most favorable response. A number greater than 68 is good.
1 session, about 1 hour in length
Acceptability Scale for Deployment 2
Time Frame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) assistance, feasibility of automation of manipulator and arm measured by surveys and observation of participants in focus group. Acceptability of robot system for walking and water delivery tasks. Acceptability survey scored out of 7. Users ranked tasks on a scale of 1-7, 7 being very usable.
1 session, about 1 hour in length

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Sociability
Time Frame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
ADL and IADL assistance, feasibility of automation of manipulator and arm measured by surveys and observation of participants in focus group.
1 session, about 1 hour in length
Acceptability
Time Frame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
Acceptance of the robot in space and for tasks
1 session, about 1 hour in length

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

Collaborators

U.S. National Science Foundation

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Michelle J Johnson, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
  • Principal Investigator: Mark Yim, PhD, University of Pennsylvanica

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

  • Mucchiani C, Torres WO, Edgar D, Johnson MJ, Cacchione PZ, Yim M. Development and deployment of a mobile manipulator for assisting and entertaining elders living in supportive apartment living facilities. In2018 27th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) 2018 Aug 27 (pp. 121-128). IEEE.
  • Mucchiani C, Cacchione P, Johnson M, Mead R, Yim M. Deployment of a Socially Assistive Robot for Assessment of COVID-19 Symptoms and Exposure at an Elder Care Setting. In2021 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) 2021 Aug 8 (pp. 1189-1195). IEEE.
  • Cacchione, P., Mucchiani, C., Lima, K., Mead, R., Yim, M. and Johnson, M., 2020. Engaging End Users in Designing Systems and Hardware for a Socially Assistive Robot. Innovation in Aging, 4(Suppl 1), pp.823-823.
  • Johnson MJ, Johnson MA, Sefcik JS, Cacchione PZ, Mucchiani C, Lau T, Yim M. Task and design requirements for an affordable mobile service robot for elder care in an all-inclusive care for elders assisted-living setting. International journal of social robotics. 2020 Nov;12(5):989-1008.
  • Mucchiani C, Sharma S, Johnson M, Sefcik J, Vivio N, Huang J, Cacchione P, Johnson M, Rai R, Canoso A, Lau T. Evaluating older adults' interaction with a mobile assistive robot. In2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2017 Sep 24 (pp. 840-847). IEEE.
  • Sefcik JS, Johnson MJ, Yim M, Lau T, Vivio N, Mucchiani C, Cacchione PZ. Stakeholders' Perceptions Sought to Inform the Development of a Low-Cost Mobile Robot for Older Adults: A Qualitative Descriptive Study. Clin Nurs Res. 2018 Feb;27(1):61-80. doi: 10.1177/1054773817730517. Epub 2017 Sep 16.
  • Mucchiani C, Cacchione P, Torres W, Johnson MJ, Yim M. Exploring low-cost mobile manipulation for elder care within a community based setting. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems. 2020 Apr;98(1):59-70.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

July 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 30, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

December 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 31, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 16, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

June 21, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 21, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 22, 2023

Last Verified

February 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 820915

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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