Innovate UK Funding for Assistive Robotic System will Offer a 'New Perspective on Ageing'

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“Our ultimate aim is to offer a new perspective on ageing, helping people realise their aspirations as they age. It is also important that CHIRON products look good and feel good. Aesthetic and beautiful designs that suit a range of preferences will be developed in collaboration with user experience and product designers. As the system develops it will be installed and trialled in the BRL's Anchor Robotics Assisted Living Studio which will ensure that it is tested for safety and usability in a realistic environment.”

Sanja Dogramadzi, Associate Professor in Robotics, who is the project technology lead for BRL, said, “Our vision is a CHIRON in every home. CHIRON doesn't have one body, but many. A set of intelligent modular robotic systems, located in multiple positions around your home; CHIRON could help you with personal hygiene tasks in the morning, help you get ready for the day and even support you in preparing your favourite meal in the kitchen. User-centred design is at the heart of the project. Through our research we will focus on the tasks that people tell us are the most burdensome and inhibit independent living, then design the system to help with these.”

Rich Walker, Managing Director of the Shadow Robot Company, said, “Shadow's founding vision is to use robots to solve real-world problems for real people. This Long Term Care Revolution project will create a new generation of robot technology - affordable and aspirational - to change the way we think and feel about aging. We are fantastically excited by this opportunity.”

Jobeda Ali, CEO of Three Sisters Care, said, “The workforce requirement in domiciliary care has increased by 35% since 2009. Care providers like us are finding it extremely difficult to meet the shortfall. By 2025, nationwide we will have a workforce gap of 75,000 care workers. This ultimately means that older people will go without care or receive very poor quality care. Technology is a crucial part of the plan to meet this workforce shortage and this project will be instrumental in averting a care crisis as the UK's demographic changes. Robotic assistance will allow more people to avoid being institutionalised and will allow couples to remain together if one of them needs extra care.”

A key component of the system will be a flexible wall or ceiling mounted robotic arm-like structure, which will fold away when not in use. The device will provide various degrees of support in assisting a person, depending on their particular needs. The hardware of the robotic arm will be part of an integrated system in the home, designed to be connected to other devices and sensors, and capable of responding to voice, visual and touch inputs.

In the future the design will enable the core device and system to be adapted and upgraded as the needs of a person changes, so that someone with a condition which changed over time could have their individual assistive robotic elements altered to provide the additional support needed.

The project will draw upon existing care technologies and develop new ones, focusing on economic, pragmatic and aesthetic designs that are affordable and desirable. Award winning social enterprise care provider, Three Sisters Care, in collaboration with Designability, will ensure that the user is at heart of the project.

The funding for this project has been awarded by Innovate UK's Long Term Care Revolution SBRI national challenge that aims to revolutionise long term care in the UK through business-led innovation. The two year project will begin in February 2016.

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