Smart Support Systems: Evaluating Robotic Assistance for Aging Populations

Academic Mentor | Wendy Rogers
Community Partner | ClarkLindsey Life Plan Community

Project Description
Assistive robots offer tremendous potential to support older adults, individuals with disabilities, family care partners, and health care providers. This can provide significant long-term benefits of enhancing autonomy and reducing healthcare costs associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's dementia, and mobility impairments. This robotics research  explores the capabilities of two assistive robots - Stretch, a mobile manipulator robot, and SoRoSH, a soft robotic shower head. The goal is to assess specific scenarios in a home environment where assistive robots can assist older adults, family care partners, and professional caregivers with ADLs (e.g., bathing/showering), instrumental ADLs (e.g., cleaning, cooking), and tasks such as managing healthcare. These demands are particularly burdensome when cognitive and/or mobility impairments increase risks to functional independence.

The project focuses on cognitive and physical tasks to address the needs of older adults with MCI/early AD, and/or mobility impairments. We are partnering with ClarkLindsey, a life plan community, to evaluate these assistive robots' potential for supporting residents and staff. Needs assessments planned for summer 2025, will gather input from ClarkLindsey staff and residents to identify activities where these assistive robots can provide meaningful assistance. These findings will guide the design and engineering teams in tailoring robotic support to align with the care needs and interests of older adults and caregivers which would include residents and staff at the ClarkLindsey community. By addressing the caregiving burden and enabling greater independence for older adults, this project aims to demonstrate the transformative potential of assistive robots in supporting older adults and their care team.

Role of the Community-Academic Scholar
The undergraduate researcher will:

• Be involved in the development of the needs assessment study as well as in the recruitment, data collection, preliminary data analyses, and dissemination of research
• Engage in study planning the study, engaging with participants, and participating in activities related to understanding the needs of the staff and residents at ClarkLindsey
• Assist with preliminary analyses of the data and presenting the findings to the Hello Robot design team and ClarkLindsey staff