Clinical trial NCT02807506: Affordable Mobile Robots for the Elderly
Official title: PFI: BIC Affordable and Mobile Assistive Robots for Elderly Care
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Aging
Keywords: elders
robotics
low income population
activities of daily living
instrumental activities of daily living
social robotics
stroke
aged
Retirement
Housing for elderly
Homes for the aged
Lead sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: U.S. National Science Foundation
First posted: 2016-06-21
Enrollment: 53
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: This project develops and tests the use of service robots to track health of the elderly over time. The objectives are to develop a low-cost mobile manipulator capable of a limited set of elder- relevant manipulation tasks (e.g. picking up dropped items). The investigators will visualize and model the use of the service robot during deployments at an elder care facility. Feedback from focus groups with elders and clinicians will inform the necessary engineering innovation.

Detailed description: The goal is to develop in three stages a new affordable robot with the participation of Living Independently for Elders (LIFE) members and clinicians. The robot will be developed by a multidisciplinary team headed by Dr. Yim at University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) (PI), Dr. Tessa Lau at Savioke Corp, and Drs. Johnson and Cacchionne at UPENN PM\&R and UPENN Nursing, respectively. The aim is to build a low-cost robot platform that will focus on the simple, but key, repetitive, data-driven tasks that robots do well. Rather than attempt to create a robot helper that mimics humans, the aim is to free human caregivers from the time-consuming tasks that robots can accomplish with facility, thereby allowing humans to focus on tasks that humans do best (i.e. human contact). Participatory reviews of the developed prototypes will be completed at each stage (each year) with the LIFE members and clinicians. There are three research questions the investigators hope to answer all while building an effective system to synergistically satisfy the business needs:

R1) Although activities of daily living (ADLs) for elder health have previously been documented and categorized, no research has been done to characterize them from the perspective of their feasibility of automation using an affordable mobile manipulation robot. How can known ADLs be characterized according to how much they would benefit from robotic assistance given varying levels of robot capabilities (mobility, limited manipulation, full manipulation)?

R2) A manipulator arm must be safe, affordable, and performant enough to assist in ADLs for elder heath. What new breakthroughs are required to develop new manipulation technology that satisfies these constraints?

R3) A data-driven service robotics What are the concomitant key usability and acceptance of service features required system has the potential to affect elder health in a positive way. How can predictive service robotics best be used to maintain and improve elder health? Which specific robot behaviors have the most impact on elders' well-being?

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Elders, age 55 and older,who are members of Living Independently For Elders (LIFE) run by the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing and their caregivers.
* Elders at Kearsley or Mercy Douglas who are 62 years and older, in imminent risk of a nursing home placement, attends LIFE center daily (day program), able to have activities of daily living (ADL) needs met by caregivers, able to pay required rent for apartment, and able to function safely in community with other elders.
* Savioke may conduct additional focus groups at The Forum at Rancho San Antonio a Continuing Care Retirement Community located in Silicon Valley.
* Clinicians will be recruited from the clinical staff working at LIFE, Kearsley, and Mercy Douglas which consists of primary care physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, licensed social workers, and physical and occupational therapists.
* Caregivers will be recruited from the clinical staff working at LIFE, Kearsley, and Mercy Douglas which consists of certified nursing assistants (CNAs).

Exclusion Criteria:

* Unable to cognitively give consent
* Unable to understand the study or refuse to comply with procedures

Primary outcomes:
measure: Usability Scale for Deployment 1
timeFrame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
measure: Usability Scale for Deployment 2
timeFrame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
measure: Sociability Scale for Deployment 1
timeFrame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
measure: Sociability Scale for Deployment 2
timeFrame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
measure: Acceptability Scale for Deployment 1
timeFrame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
measure: Acceptability Scale for Deployment 2
timeFrame: 1 session, about 1 hour in length
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Philadelphia
country: United States
facility: Mercy Living Independently for Elders (L.I.F.E) - West Philadelphia
state: Pennsylvania
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Pennsylvania
name: Michelle J Johnson, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Pennsylvanica
name: Mark Yim, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Mucchiani C, Torres WO, Edgar D, Johnson MJ, Cacchione PZ, Yim M. Development and deployment of a mobile manipulator for assisting and entertaining elders living in supportive apartment living facilities. In2018 27th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) 2018 Aug 27 (pp. 121-128). IEEE.
citation: Mucchiani C, Cacchione P, Johnson M, Mead R, Yim M. Deployment of a Socially Assistive Robot for Assessment of COVID-19 Symptoms and Exposure at an Elder Care Setting. In2021 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) 2021 Aug 8 (pp. 1189-1195). IEEE.
citation: Cacchione, P., Mucchiani, C., Lima, K., Mead, R., Yim, M. and Johnson, M., 2020. Engaging End Users in Designing Systems and Hardware for a Socially Assistive Robot. Innovation in Aging, 4(Suppl 1), pp.823-823.
citation: Johnson MJ, Johnson MA, Sefcik JS, Cacchione PZ, Mucchiani C, Lau T, Yim M. Task and design requirements for an affordable mobile service robot for elder care in an all-inclusive care for elders assisted-living setting. International journal of social robotics. 2020 Nov;12(5):989-1008.
citation: Mucchiani C, Sharma S, Johnson M, Sefcik J, Vivio N, Huang J, Cacchione P, Johnson M, Rai R, Canoso A, Lau T. Evaluating older adults' interaction with a mobile assistive robot. In2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2017 Sep 24 (pp. 840-847). IEEE.
citation: Sefcik JS, Johnson MJ, Yim M, Lau T, Vivio N, Mucchiani C, Cacchione PZ. Stakeholders' Perceptions Sought to Inform the Development of a Low-Cost Mobile Robot for Older Adults: A Qualitative Descriptive Study. Clin Nurs Res. 2018 Feb;27(1):61-80. doi: 10.1177/1054773817730517. Epub 2017 Sep 16.
citation: Mucchiani C, Cacchione P, Torres W, Johnson MJ, Yim M. Exploring low-cost mobile manipulation for elder care within a community based setting. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems. 2020 Apr;98(1):59-70.