Overcoming barriers and increasing independence: service robots for elderly and disabled people

This paper discusses the potential for service robots to overcome barriers and increase independence of elderly and disabled people. It includes a brief overview of the existing uses of service robots by disabled and elderly people and advances in technology which will make new uses possible and provides suggestions for some of these new applications. The paper also considers the design and other conditions to be met for user acceptance. It also discusses the complementarity of assistive service robots and personal assistance and considers the types of applications and users for which service robots are and are not suitable

Biomechanics

Biomechanics is a vast discipline within the field of Biomedical Engineering. It explores the underlying mechanics of how biological and physiological systems move. It encompasses important clinical applications to address questions related to medicine using engineering mechanics principles. Biomechanics includes interdisciplinary concepts from engineers, physicians, therapists, biologists, physicists, and mathematicians. Through their collaborative efforts, biomechanics research is ever changing and expanding, explaining new mechanisms and principles for dynamic human systems. Biomechanics is used to describe how the human body moves, walks, and breathes, in addition to how it responds to injury and rehabilitation. Advanced biomechanical modeling methods, such as inverse dynamics, finite element analysis, and musculoskeletal modeling are used to simulate and investigate human situations in regard to movement and injury. Biomechanical technologies are progressing to answer contemporary medical questions. The future of biomechanics is dependent on interdisciplinary research efforts and the education of tomorrow’s scientists

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

Assessment of Power Wheelchair User Satisfaction Using Seat Elevators

The purpose of this study was to assess the difference in satisfaction of using seat elevators (SE) on power wheelchairs among individuals with disabilities through retrospective analysis of two clinical quality assurance databases that included time 1 (T1) and time 2 (T2) Functional Mobility Assessment (FMA) scores. The FMA is a validated self-report questionnaire that measures a person’s satisfaction in performing Mobility Related Activities of Daily Living (MRADL) across 10 items (Kumar, 2013). The databases collectively held 731 cases while 123 cases met the inclusion criteria of using a power wheelchair equipped with a SE at either T1, T2, or both. Three aspects of the FMA were assessed; #5 (reach), #6 (transfer), and total score. Cases were assigned to one of the three following groups; power wheelchair (PWC) users using a device with a SE at T1 but using a new device without a SE at T2 (SE – NSE, n = 14); PWC users using a device with a SE at T1 and using a device with a SE at T2 (SE – SE, n = 42); and PWC users using a device without a SE at T1 but using a device with a SE at T2 (NSE – SE, n = 67). The three aspects of the FMA were analyzed within the three groups of PWC users. For the SE-NSE group, there was a significant decrease for FMA item #5 (reach) (p = .03). There were no significant changes for FMA item #6 (transfer) (p = .48) and total score (p = .57). For the SE-SE group, there were significant improvements in FMA items #5 (reach) (p < .01), #6 (transfer) (p < .01), and total score (p < .01). For the NSE-SE group, there were significant improvements for FMA items #5 (reach) (p < .01), #6 (transfer) (p < .01), and total score (p < .01). In summary, the study indicates a SE can increase satisfaction of PWC users. The lack of a statistically significant difference in FMA item #6 and FMA total for the SE – NSE group was likely due to a small sample in that subgroup

Enhanced Accessibility for People with Disabilities Living in Urban Areas

[Excerpt] People with disabilities constitute a significant proportion of the poor in developing countries. If internationally agreed targets on reducing poverty are to be reached, it is critical that specific measures be taken to reduce the societal discrimination and isolation that people with disabilities continue to face. Transport is an important enabler of strategies to fight poverty through enhancing access to education, employment, and social services. This project aims to further the understanding of the mobility and access issues experienced by people with disabilities in developing countries, and to identify specific steps that can be taken to start addressing problems. A major objective of the project is to compile a compendium of guidelines that can be used by government authorities, advocacy groups, and donor/loan agencies to improve the access of people with disabilities to transport and other services in urban areas