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Exoskeletons in Elderly Healthcare

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Internet of Things for Human-Centered Design

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 1011))

Abstract

The older population is projected to quadruple between the years 2000 and 2050. Many of the elderly experience mobility impairments of varying degrees. These are caused by a physiological muscular decay or associated health conditions, such as stroke, which shows an increasing rate of incidence with the age of the subject. The introduction of exoskeletons in elderly healthcare scenarios, derived from the rehabilitation one, is becoming a promising approach. The opportunities and advantages of these systems in healthcare are of great interest. Most widely used systems are stationary, improving the outcomes of traditional approaches of rehabilitation. Fewer fully wearable systems are being used due to their cost, complexity, weight and performance. However, big steps have been done in the last years to improve them. The potential use of wearable untethered systems or exosuits in home environments opens new possibilities, especially in daily healthcare, promoting mobility and an active life. To promote exoskeleton’s use, usability and acceptability are central factors in elderly healthcare scenario. This includes not only technical characteristics of the device (such as weight or level of assistance), but also aesthetics and compatibility with everyday activities. Considerable developments have been achieved in the area of user experience, mostly thanks to the use of industrial design and Human-Centered Design—HCD principles. These approaches put great emphasis in keeping the users in the design loop, ensuring that technical developments are focused on their real needs. Additionally, an effective use of the exoskeletons in unstructured environments requires to process information on the context and the activity being performed, enabling assistance in Activities of Daily Living—ADL. This can be done relying on the growing trend of wearable sensors and Internet of Things—IoT, exploiting the paradigm of ubiquitous computing, cloud storage, and intuitive human-machine interaction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via San Quirico 19D, 16163, Genova, Italy

    Matteo Sposito, Tommaso Poliero, Christian Di Natali, Darwin Gordon Caldwell & Jesús Ortiz

  2. Rehab Technologies Lab, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy

    Marianna Semprini, Giacinto Barresi, Matteo Laffranchi & Lorenzo De Michieli

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  1. Matteo Sposito
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  1. University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Sofia Scataglini

  2. Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

    Silvia Imbesi

  3. Polytechnic of Coimbra, ESTGOH, Rua General Santos Costa, Oliveira do Hospital, Portugal

    Gonçalo Marques

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Sposito, M. et al. (2022). Exoskeletons in Elderly Healthcare. In: Scataglini, S., Imbesi, S., Marques, G. (eds) Internet of Things for Human-Centered Design. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 1011. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8488-3_17

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