Presenter

Federico Pacini, University of Pisa

Description

Nowadays, a consistently large number of people suffer from impairments, such as people with Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, etc., and this number is continuously growing due to the aging of the population. For some disorders, freedom of movement gets worse and worse. Daily actions taken for granted by most people can be difficult for others. One of them is lifting blankets on the bed. Thinking about people not able to move their upper limbs, it is impossible for them to perform such action. The possibility of performing such actions in an autonomous way gives individuals a remarkable physical and psychological sense of well-being and a relief also for caregivers. Assuming the user is still able to produce utterances, the idea is to realize a kit which allows the blankets to follow the willingness of the user. The system is enabled after an utterance is mapped to a valid command. A moving system brings the blanket to the desired position and adjusts its proximity to the user.