91制片厂

With a major new grant from the National Institutes of Health, 91制片厂 researchers will harness cutting edge technology to help aging adults with dementia remain in their homes.

The five-year grant totaling $2.8 million from the National Institutes of Health鈥檚 (NIH) National Institute on听Aging supports an interdisciplinary effort to develop and test social assistive robots to aid in the care of individuals with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and related dementia in the comfort of their own homes.

鈥淭he ultimate goal of this research is to help support caregivers while keeping their family member healthy and active at home.鈥�

鈥淐aring for aging adults, especially those dealing with progressive Alzheimer鈥檚 and dementia, can place a high burden on family caregivers who cannot be with their care recipients 24/7,鈥� says , professor of occupational therapy in the and co-principal investigator on the project. 鈥淭he ultimate goal of this research is to help support those caregivers while keeping their family member healthy and active at home.鈥�

The interdisciplinary team of researchers, co-led by assistant professor of computer science in the ,听, created a prototype robot that has been tested in a controlled lab setting. With the new grant, the research team will build on their success by creating a technological framework to develop social assistive robots with more capabilities and test them in home settings.

This would include compatibility with听Internet of Things commercial devices already found in homes, such as motion control cameras and sensors, to keep older adults safe and in line with their health care. For example, if a patient does not take their medication on time, a sensor strategically placed by their pill bottle would track the lack of movement and would alert the assistive robot. The robot would then initiate a vocal reminder to the patient. If, after a few attempts, the patient does not respond by taking their medicine, the robot would alert a remote human caregiver who would be able to intervene.

听鈥淲ith this grant, we will be able to further develop the robot鈥檚 technological framework from not only using smart home devices but also artificial intelligence and wearables, like a smart watch, to help gauge the patient鈥檚 activity level, health management and connectedness with caregivers,鈥澨齭ays Begum.听

听鈥淏eing able to remotely monitor a person鈥檚 physical activity and other vital signs can help family, friends and clinicians more effectively manage the disease and may be used to identify a decline in function and take action before an adverse medical event occurs,鈥� says , professor of kinesiology in the and a co-investigator on the team.

听While this research is focused on robots to aid with Alzheimer鈥檚 and dementia care, researchers hope it may have other future applications and benefit听seniors by letting them age safely in their homes.

Additional 91制片厂 collaborators on the project are John Wilcox, clinical associate professor of occupational therapy; DongPeng Xu, assistant professor of computer science; Jennifer Rabalais, co-director of the Center for Aging and Community Living; and Esmaeil Bahalkeh, assistant professor of health management and policy.

This project was seed-funded in 2019 by .

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