A Smart Walker for the Elderly System for Elderly Care

Principal Investigator: Professor Chuan WU (Department of Computer Science)

This project is showcased in the inaugural exhibition – Engineering for Better Living in Innovation Wing Two

Project information

Introduction

This project aims to develop a set of technologies to achieve convenient-to-use mobility support for the elderly. Our walker has three fundamental functionalities that do not exist or not well supported by (smart) walkers in the market: smart walking assistance; falling prevention and support; autonomous mobility.

Novelty of the Project

A set of mechanical, control, sensory, and A l technologies is being developed which includes:

  1. Novel walker mechanical structure with omnidirectional mobility and outrigger mechanisms;
  2. Dual-mode actuation and control for walking/standing support and fall prevention/ recovery;
  3. Multimodal sensory data collection through soft sensory skin, and data processing on device and in the cloud, for event detection and control such as user front followmg and fall detection;
  4. Sound-source localization for elderly localisation and auto-navigation of walker.

Benefit to the Community

One of the alarming consequences of the growing aging population is the fast decline of functional capacity that older elderly experience. While constrained physical and cognitive abilities leave many older adults dependent, most of them prefer to continue living in their homes rather than moving into nursing homes. With the intelligent walking assistance and falling protection from our walker, an active, independent and quality life of the ageing population is supported, which can not only slow overall functional decline, but also reduce health care costs by delaying premature institutionalization.

About the Scholar

Professor Wu’s  research interests include cloud computing, distributed machine learning systems, distributed learning algorithms, and intelligent technologies for elderly care.

Project poster
Project video
Project images
Achievement of the Project

Xiaoyang Zhao, Zhi Zhu, MingShan Liu, Chongyu Zhao, Yafei Zhao, Jia Pan, Zheng Wang, Chuan Wu. “A Smart Robotic Walker with Intelligent Close-proximity Interaction Capabilities for Elderly Mobility Safety,” in Frontiers in Neurorobotics, October 2020.

Enquiry / Feedback

Please feel free to give your enquiry / feedbacks to the research team by filling the form (https://forms.gle/34aDZ34V3Gou6LjEA). Thank you!