I AG G - I S G G e ro n t e ch n o l o gy d e m o

A. Badii, I. Etxeberria, C. Huijnen, A. Maseda, S. Dittenberger, A. Hochgatterer, D. Thiemert,

A-S. Rigaud. CompanionAble: Graceful integration of mobile robot companion with a smart
home environment. Gerontechnology 2009;8(3):181; doi: 10.4017/gt.2009.08.03.008.00 With
the higher incidence of pathologies and cognitive impairments associated with aging there will
be an increasing demand for maintaining care systems and services for the aging population
in Europe. There is a compelling societal case for aging persons to be cared for at home for
as long as they would like and are able to do so. This is mediated by the twin imperatives of
economic cost-effectiveness of care provision and the need to enable them to live at home
with as much support as needed for an autonomy of life-style as supported by systems and
services that provide for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). The objective of the CompanionAble
project is to provide a new AAL solution through a service robot as a companion that is seam-
lessly integrated with a smart home environment. Technical description The combined sys-
tem will provide support to the Care-Recipient (CR) for Activities of Daily Living (ADL), in par-
ticular for persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). The CompanionAble project will pro-
vide a care environment that supports both the CR’s life-style activities and their informal and
formal carers for: (i) Realisation of an intelligent day-time management, (ii) Content-generation
for cognitive stimulation and training and coherent delivery through multiple channels (station-
ary and mobile), (iii) Reminding re-medication taking; analysis of data regarding the health
status of the CR, and (iv) Efficient and natural social communication through care networking;
audio-visual communication with care-givers. User studies In order to arrive at a prioritised
list of user’s needs, a user-centred requirements elicitation and prioritisation methodology (UI-
REF) was deployed1 in full compliance with the ethical rules and regulations. Users from test-
beds in Spain, France, Netherlands and Austria were engaged in the requirements elicitation
process that was facilitated by cultural probes, and multi-media visualisation of potential us-
age-contexts, so as to deepen understanding of user groups’ needs and explicate the users’
individual needs and priorities. Overall some 17 CRs, and 13 care-givers as well as 31 profes-
sionals were involved in the initial questionnaire survey and the subsequent (semi)structured
interviews. Results are as follows: CRs of the MCI group can independently execute all the
Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL) whereas with respect to the Instrumental Activities of
Daily Living (IADL), this group would need some supervision and in some cases they require
active help (e.g. with appointment management, reminders of special dates and events such
as birthdays and times for taking their medicine(s), checking how the food is being cooked,
localisation of keys, glasses, phone, TV remote controller and other objects, money manage-
ment, new or unfamiliar activities and/or situations). Professionals emphasised (i) that people
with MCI might have more problems in real daily life than they indicate themselves and (ii) the
importance of giving support to caregivers. Care-givers would in particular value (i) support in
terms of safety alerts due to incidental slip-ups by the CRs, (ii) provide an overall situation
assessment particularly in risk situations, and (iii) help with the wellbeing of the CR through
lifestyle support to visit family, and safely indulge in favourite leisure activities. The Compan-
ionAble framework architecture takes these needs into account (Figure 1).
References
1. Badii A. User-Intimate Requirements Hier-
archy Resolution Framework (UI-REF), Cap-
turing Ambient Assisted Living Needs. AmI-
08 Workshops, November 2008, Nürnberg
Keywords: companion robot, service
robot, smart home
Address: University of Reading, Reading
Berkshire RG6 6AY, UK;
E: atta.badii@reading.ac.uk

Figure 1. Architecture of CompanionAble

Summer 2009 181 Vol. 8, No 3

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