Affordable Mobile Robots for the Elderly

Aging Clinical Trial

Official title:

PFI: BIC Affordable and Mobile Assistive Robots for Elderly Care

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02807506
• Other study ID #: 820915
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: July 2014
• Est. completion date: December 30, 2022

Study information

• Verified date: February 2023
• Source: University of Pennsylvania
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

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.

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?

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 53
• Est. completion date: December 30, 2022
• Est. primary completion date: June 30, 2021
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

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

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Aging

Intervention

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).

Other:
• Survey
Observe Elders, Clinicians and Caregiver's survey, interview and observational responses to stage-wise experimental deployments of a mobile service robot.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Mercy Living Independently for Elders (L.I.F.E) - West Philadelphia	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Pennsylvania	U.S. National Science Foundation

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (7)

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 rob

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.

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.

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 (I

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.

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. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Usability Scale for Deployment 1	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
Primary	Usability Scale for Deployment 2	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
Primary	Sociability Scale for Deployment 1	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
Primary	Sociability Scale for Deployment 2	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
Primary	Acceptability Scale for Deployment 1	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
Primary	Acceptability Scale for Deployment 2	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

External Links

•   Article about robot for eldercare