#priorwork

Problem: There are a lot of children who suffer a long-term illness that keeps them out of the school. These children cannot communicate with their classmates or even do not have classmates since they have been stay in hospital or home from the first day of school. The isolation might cause some emotional development issue and makes them hard to communicate with peers afterward. Besides the loneliness and isolation, they also left a bunch of schoolwork because of absence. Since there is no Panapto in primary school or some middle school, the only way to catch up is hiring a home tutor. However, the additional cost on education is another burden besides the medical cost. 

Solution: The startup company, No Isolation launched the AV1 robot. It is a telepresence robot that can represent the child in the classroom and help the child communicate with the school in real-time.

Problem: For individuals that are bedridden, or aren’t at home often, the only surefire way to keep pets nourished without this robot was to hire a sitter to take care of the pet. Even beyond this, we could all be guilty of having to come home late one day (e.g. college students with fluctuating schedules) or simply forgetting to refill the bowls. The very first review for this project on Robotshop.com for this product: 

“This unit has made a big difference for my family and my cat Max who can only eat wet food. If we wanted to go somewhere for the day we had to ask a neighbour to come and feed Max. The 5 meal automatic pet feeder was easy to set up through wi-fi with my IPhone and planed feeding to be 3hrs apart without fail every time. This has been a lifesaver!”

- Joanne

(https://www.robotshop.com/en/automatic-pet-feeders.html)

Problem: Navigating around the urban environment is challenging for people with impaired visions. Without the help of guide dogs, visually impaired people will have a hard time recognizing obstacles, sidewalks, people around them, and their destinations. Even if they are in a familiar environment, if some buildings are under construction, they cannot recognize them anymore. If the guide dogs encounter any problem such as accidentally getting injured, its master will have a hard time navigating around the environment and figuring out what is going on. Due to all these challenges, some people even choose not to explore new places. 

Solution: Horus is a robot developed by Horus Technology. It is a wearable device which has two front cameras and a GPU to capture the environment and analysis the images in real time. It then describes the environment to the user via bone conduction. Obstacles in various locations correspond to sounds of different pitches. Horus also gives instructions to the user based on the current environment.

(Image of Horus)

Problem: Walking is an activity of daily living (ADL) and losing the ability to walk can be devastating. Statistics from the United States Census Bureau shows that 3.6 million people in the nation use a wheelchair to assist with mobility, along with 11.6 million people who use a cane, crutches or walker. People who suffer from spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, cerebrovascular diseases, diseases of the brain and neuromuscular system are unable to walk themselves. Even they have a motor wheelchair, there’re still many places that do not have sufficient facilities for the convenience of wheelchair users. This situation will negatively impact wheelchair users’ sense of self-worth since they cannot do things that normal people can do in many places. In addition to positively impacting the self-worth of people who cannot walk, independent walking would create a positive figure for the normal people-a figure that shows those disable people can walk by themselves-and reduce the discrimination toward those disable people in the society and workplaces.

Solution: Researchers at the Center for Cybernics Research at University of Tsukuba and engineers at Cyberdyne Inc. developed HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb), a cyborg-type robot, can be worn by people who cannot walk. When a person moves the body, various signals are sent from the brain to muscles through nerves. HAL can read those BES (Bio-Electic Signals) from the wearer and compensate muscle power of lower limbs to help the wearer walk, sit down, and stand up.

Problem: Obesity and overweight are becoming more prevalent in the U.S. and around the world, so are the health problems that may occur along with obesity and overweight.  In this context, adherence to exercise programs is important, yet problems like lacking motivation and time for going out for exercise in public can be barriers.

Solution: A group of researchers at the USC Interaction Lab developed a Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) exercise buddy for circuit training with obese and overweight youth age 11-14. The SAR is used as a teammate role on a peer level interaction with a user engaged in physical exercise. The exercises are based on a circuit training routine that has been demonstrated to be an effective intervention for overweight and obese adolescents.

Problem: Children with autism often have difficulty communicating and interacting with others and have symptoms that can interfere with their success in school. Some symptoms include making little or inconsistent eye contact, not listening to people, and not understanding other people’s point of view or actions. Early treatment for autism can reduce difficulties for the individual while also teaching them new skills. Many children with autism are referred to trained professionals that provide behavioral, psychological, educational, and skill building interventions. Getting trained and affordable help for children with autism can be difficult. Also, the professional may not have enough time to give the child the help they need.

Solution: Researchers at the University of Southern California are working on a socially assistive robot, Kiwi, that plays games and interacts with children with autism to motivate them and teach social skills. Kiwi records each session it has with the child to hopefully improve each session. This at home robot allows kids to choose when they want to work with the robot and allows them to interact and learn from it every day of the week.

Sources: http://robotics.usc.edu/interaction/movies/

Problem: Despite the fact that nearly 71% of the Earth is covered in oceans, less than five percent of the ocean has been discovered. In fact, today, we know more about Mars than we do about the oceans on Earth. The ocean is a crucial to humans, as it moderates the planet’s climate systems, provides a multitude of resources and even has an effect on human health. It is quite important to work on furthering our understanding of this essential part of our planet, yet studying the ocean provides a great deal of challenges. Currently, the seafloor cannot be mapped using existing technologies such as radar, since ocean water obstructs radio waves. This inhibits the study of many undersea organisms, as well as the measurement and modeling of underwater environments. It’s also very difficult to collect data or capture images of the oceans.

Problem: Eating is an activity of daily living (ADL) and losing the ability to self-feed can be devastating. According to a survey in 2010, around 1 million adults in the United States required the assistance of another person to help them eat. Conditions such as  cerebrovascular diseases like strokes, Parkinson's, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, bilateral amputations, and many others can render individuals unable to eat on their own accord. Instead, they depend on a caregiver to feed them every morsel of every meal every day. In addition to positively impacting the self-worth of people with disabilities, independent dining would have a considerable effect on caregiver hours because feeding is one of the most time-consuming tasks for caregivers. Also, dining together with other people is a cornerstone of society and provides a personal link to the wider community but the presence of caregivers during dinner with friends or relatives may pose a privacy concern.

Solution: Researchers at the Allen School have programmed a wheel-chair mounted robot arm to automatically detect and acquire food on a plate and feed it to the person sitting on the wheelchair.