SBIR-STTR Award

This Phase I SBIR proposal submitted by Hello Robot requests funds to develop a robot that will support olderadults with mobility limitations. Nearly 16 million older Americans have a mobility disability and often needsupport for domestic activities including self-care and household activities. Personal robots have tremendouspotential to augment individual capabilities, support independence, enable functional activities, and reduce fallsrisk. To-date, there are no commercially available robots designed specifically for needs and capabilities ofolder adults that are affordable, safe, and effective for use in homes. The StretchTM robot is designed tosupport everyday activities through use of a lightweight telescoping arm mounted on a mobile base. The robotcould be teleoperated by a user through a touchscreen, web browser, joystick, or voice command. Stretch is afunctioning research robot prototype. To attain full functionality to support older adults with mobility limitations,we need to identify the specific characteristics of the tasks for which older adults need support in their homes;design the tools that enable Stretch to effectively perform the activities; and design an easy-to-use interfacethat these older adults can use to control Stretch to carry out their desired tasks. This Phase I proposalsupports the NIA SBIR research priority on Aging in Place to develop robotics that promote independencethrough mitigation of age-related physical health challenges. We propose to design and test a suite of activitiesthat Stretch can perform, with ease of control by older adults, to support independence, enhance safety, andimprove quality of life. The proposal has three broad aims: Aim 1: Identify support needs of older adultswith mobility limitations and technical requirements for Stretch. This aim will yield detailed specificationsof the activities for which older adults with mobility disabilities need support as well as the technical designneeds. Aim 2: Develop Stretch tools and interaction methods for a priority set of home tasks. Based onfindings from Aim 1, we will select a suite of high priority tasks for development in Aim 2 and direct user testingin Aim 3. In Aim 2, we will develop functioning prototypes and refine the control interface features to supportease of use and reliability for the human-robot interaction. We will identify use challenges to guide userinstructions and training protocols. This aim will yield a suite of task capabilities for Stretch as well asimplementation protocols for testing with older adults with mobility limitations. Aim 3: Test feasibility ofStretch use by older adults in a home environment. We will use a participatory design approach to assessthe ability of older adults with mobility limitations to control the robot to achieve the target tasks in a simulatedhome environment. We will make adjustments as use challenges or robot inefficiencies are identified. This aimwill provide feasibility data to inform a functional, usable, useful, supportive robot system that enables theautonomy of older individuals with mobility limitations in their homes. The Stretch robot has tremendouspotential to support everyday home activities, increasing autonomy and increased quality of life. Project Narrative Older adults who have lower- or upper-body mobility disabilities are at risk of declines in functional independence, robots have the capacity to help. StretchTM is a robot designed to support everyday activities through use of a lightweight telescoping arm mounted on a mobile base. Our research will identify the specific characteristics of home tasks for which support is needed; develop tools to enable Stretch to effectively perform these tasks; and design an easy-to-use interface that older adults can use to control Stretch to carry out their desired tasks. Adoption ; Age ; ages ; Elderly ; advanced age ; elders ; geriatric ; late life ; later life ; older adult ; older person ; senior citizen ; Environment ; Goals ; Household ; Interview ; Learning ; Literature ; Manuals ; Methods ; Quality of life ; QOL ; Research ; Risk ; Robotics ; Safety ; Self Care ; personal care ; Self-Help Devices ; Assistive Technology ; assisted device ; assistive device ; Task Performances ; Technology ; Testing ; Voice ; Articular Range of Motion ; Joint Range of Motion ; range of motion ; base ; improved ; Phase ; Training ; disability ; Individual ; Funding ; Internet ; WWW ; web ; world wide web ; lightweight ; light weight ; Robot ; tool ; Research Priority ; Home environment ; Protocol ; Protocols documentation ; System ; physical health ; physical conditioning ; preference ; American ; Stretching ; Self Efficacy ; Care giver Burden ; care giver stress ; caregiver stress ; Caregiver Burden ; fall risk ; Data ; Retrieval ; Small Business Innovation Research Grant ; SBIR ; Small Business Innovation Research ; Characteristics ; Process ; Development ; developmental ; Joystick ; Instruction ; age related ; age dependent ; cost ; design ; designing ; touchscreen ; touch panel ; touch screen ; touch screen panel ; touchscreen panel ; web interface ; prototype ; arm ; informal care ; robot control ; robotic control ; human-robot interaction ; aging in place ; age in place ; functional independence ; implementation protocol ; feasibility testing ; Home ;

Assistive robots have the potential to enhance individual autonomy, reduce human burden, and lowerhealthcare costs associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's dementia (AD), and mobilityimpairments in older adults, family care partners, and professional caregivers. StretchTM is a robot designed tosupport everyday activities through use of a lightweight telescoping arm mounted on a mobile base. ThisPhase II SBIR proposal builds on a successful Phase I project (R43AG072982) awarded to Hello Robot andthe University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, wherein we conducted participatory design research to developand test a suite of tasks that the Stretch assistive robot can perform to support independence, enhance safety,and improve quality of life for older adults. We identified the specific characteristics of the tasks for which olderadults need support in their homes; designed end effector tools for Stretch to facilitate performance of thesetasks; and designed an easy-to-use interface to control Stretch to carry out these tasks. In this Phase IIproposal we partner with ClarkLindsey Life Plan Community to broaden the set of tasks Stretch can perform,focusing on two general categories of tasks (cognitive and physical) to support the needs of older adults withcognitive impairment (MCI/early AD) and/or mobility impairment. We will refine the remote control interface tobe usable for professional caregivers and family care partners and develop a suite of autonomous activitiesthat Stretch can carry out. We will explore the functional utility of Stretch in a range of home environments,including common rooms with multiple people. These efforts will yield a scalable, affordable, flexible StretchCognitive and Physical Assistant that can improve the quality of life for older adults with a range of cognitiveand physical impairments. The research objectives will be accomplished through the following specific aims:Aim 1: Refine and broaden the functional capabilities of Stretch to support older adults with a range ofcognitive impairments and physical impairments. Aim 2: Advance the design of the user interfaces for eachstakeholder group: older adults with cognitive and physical impairments, professional caregivers, and familycare partners. Integrate remotely initiated tasks with autonomous task performance. Aim 3: Conductembedded evaluations in naturalistic settings. This Phase II proposal directly meets multiple aspects of the NIHPAS-19-316 to develop "New technologies for in-home use or for coordination or delivery of services to sustainin-home living for individuals with MCI or AD/ADRD;" to design "Assistive robotics technology that can supporta person in order to maintain or improve her/his independence, safety, and well-being when diagnosed withAD/ADRD and alleviate the burden of care;" and to develop "Novel technologies to monitor, assist, or maintaindaily functioning of older individuals with AD/ADRD and other cognitive impairments." The Stretch Cognitiveand Physical Assistant robot has tremendous potential to support everyday home activities for older adults withMCI, AD, and/or mobility impairments, providing them with autonomy and increased quality of life.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Project Narrative Assistive robots have the potential to enhance individual autonomy, reduce human burden, and lower healthcare costs associated with mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's dementia, and mobility impairments for older adults, family care partners, and professional caregivers. StretchTM is a robot designed to support everyday activities through use of a lightweight telescoping arm mounted on a mobile base. Our research will develop and evaluate the Stretch Cognitive and Physical Assistant to support cognitive and physical tasks autonomously and through remote control.

Project Terms: