P25 Ultrasonic beam communication for collaboration between wheelchair person, helper and assist robot

Abstract

BackgroundMobility is very important for human health and Quality Of Life of residents. Walking around in a sunny park and riverside makes people feel pleasure moment and refresh their mind. Promoting such going outside improves not only physical health but also mental health and reduces massive government medical expense. However, elderly people and wheel chair persons often require care by helpers to avoid many kinds of accidents although young human resource in aging societies has been decreasing. MethodsWe propose “Ultrasonic Beam Communication System (UBCS)” for an autonomous helper robot which includes many kinds of sensors and is attached to mainly a wheelchair. Quiet acoustic information that only people surrounded by a subject nearby can easily hear as if a whispering message without involving many more unnecessary people by making louder noise or beep all around. UBCS simultaneously distributes pedestrians multiple guides with different voices from different directions by multiple ultrasonic speakers. A pedestrian can choose one or two favorite guides in the ultrasonic beams by only turning the face and simultaneously hear them. UBCS also supports multiple languages for foreign helpers. ResultsUBCS gives awareness and guides to three kinds of pedestrians, such as (i) a wheelchair user, (ii) a helper, and (iii) passer-by by quiet whispers in ultrasonic beams when a helper robot detects risks. Eight pedestrians can acquire effective whisper guides corresponding to the kind in order to take safe and considerable actions. All eight subjects could make pleasant going out and collaboration to deal with hard mobility easy. Major four examples are (E1) to (E4). (E1) A wheelchair person could avoid a hollow in the face of road and falling down. (E2) When a pedestrian needed help by finding some road obstacles (e.g. a steep point on a slope), he/she could use UBCS to notify people nearby to seek for some assistance. (E3)The helper of a wheelchair person could notice an invisible bar of bed by a quiet awareness and avoid hitting his/her foot against the bar in indoor care. (E4) A weak person could quickly know how to evacuate from natural disasters (e.g., severe rainfalls and landslide) by global warming and moved to a safe place. ConclusionsWe could ensure the effectiveness of UBCS for three kinds of pedestrians in order to notice risks and disasters and know how to deal with them by UBCS guides in ultrasonic beams in experiments.