Design of service robots for elderly care

• Main Author: Chua, Jamie Jia En
• Other Authors: Xie Ming
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/150896
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report details the design process of a service robot for the elderly. The issue of global ageing is becoming more and more prominent with the increase in sentiments against having children, coupled with the increased lifespans due to better healthcare. An ageing population increases the stress on healthcare infrastructure due to a larger proportion of citizens requiring more healthcare services to combat the decline in health that comes with ageing. In addition, an ageing population also means a smaller proportion of younger citizens available to care for the elderly. This presents a problem for the caregiving sector, as the lack of manpower will lead to overworked caregivers who might, in turn, provide poor caregiving services for the elderly. Hence, the service robot was designed with aims to mitigate this problem and relieve caregiver burden by taking over simple repetitive tasks for the caregiver, enabling the caregiver more time and energy to provide better and more personalized care. Research was done on the current situation of global ageing, with special focus put on Singapore’s active ageing initiative and her elderly persons. The service robot was then designed to complement the healthcare regimen of elderly persons in Singapore. Conceptual ideas for different robot functions were combined into three main product concepts, which were then evaluated against a set of weighted criteria. The concept with the highest total weighted value was then further developed according to embodiment design rules and principles.