EAGER: CHS: Collaborative Research: Analyzing Elder Care to Guide the Design of Caregiver Robots

EAGER：CHS：协作研究：分析老年人护理以指导护理机器人的设计

• 批准号: 1452460
• 负责人: Keith Jones
• 金额: $ 15.03万
• 依托单位: Texas Tech University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1452460&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; CHS; Collaborative; Research; Analyzing

One approach to expanding the availability of elder care and reducing elder care costs is to increase the number of elders who can live independently in their own homes which is referred to as "aging in place". This is an attractive option because elders prefer to live independently and report better health and quality of life when they do, and because aging in place can reduce the increasing costs of elder health care. However, aging in place still requires caregivers, and caregivers are in short supply. One approach to expanding the availability of caregivers for elders who are aging in place is to develop robots that can serve as caregivers in these homes. Research already suggests that many elders are open to this possibility, especially if it allows them to retain their independence. Furthermore, many elders report that for many tasks they would actually prefer to be helped by a robot rather than another human. As is the case for human caregivers, robot caregivers will be enmeshed in a larger complex social network and technical system beyond just the caregivers and the person who is being cared for. This larger context will need to be understood in order for robotic caregivers to successfully deliver the care that is needed, such as to know who to contact and with what information if the person that they are assisting is not following his or her usual patterns of behavior. This project will explore and describe how caregiving robots should function by analyzing the current form of caregiving in elders' homes, by creating a detailed account of current elder care practices, and by translating this account into design recommendations for caregiving robots.The analysis will begin by describing the complex socio-technical context of current and future caregiving systems, specifically in terms of the work function and the work domain of the human or robot caregiver. Work function will be described independently of who or what will perform those functions. Work domain will be analyzed using a variety of techniques such as Abstraction-Decomposition Spaces (ADSs) and Contextual Activity Diagrams (ConADs). ADSs will map the relationships between a home's overall objectives and physical resources at several different levels of abstraction, such as by mapping the objective of providing a safe physical environment to different resources that are available to assist with transfers. ConADs will relate different work functions to different work situations, such as by relating the administration of medications to the appropriate time of day and location in the home. Based on these analyses of work function and work domain, the project will draft, refine, and validate formal descriptions of design requirements for caregiving robots.

扩大老年人护理服务范围和降低老年人护理成本的一种方法是增加能够在家中独立生活的老年人数量，这被称为“就地养老”。这是一个有吸引力的选择，因为老年人更喜欢独立生活，并且在独立生活时报告自己的健康状况和生活质量更好，而且就地养老可以减少不断增加的老年人医疗保健费用。然而，居家养老仍然需要护理人员，而护理人员却供不应求。为居家养老的老年人提供更多护理人员的一种方法是开发可以在这些家庭中充当护理人员的机器人。研究已经表明，许多长者对这种可能性持开放态度，特别是如果这能让他们保持独立的话。此外，许多长者表示，对于许多任务，他们实际上更愿意由机器人而不是另一个人来帮助。与人类护理人员的情况一样，机器人护理人员将陷入一个更大、复杂的社交网络和技术系统，而不仅仅是护理人员和被护理人员。为了让机器人护理人员成功地提供所需的护理，需要了解这个更大的背景，例如，如果他们正在协助的人不遵循他或她通常的行为模式，那么知道该联系谁以及提供什么信息。该项目将通过分析当前老年人之家的护理形式，创建当前老年人护理实践的详细说明，并将该说明转化为护理机器人的设计建议，探索和描述护理机器人应如何发挥作用。分析将开始通过描述当前和未来护理系统的复杂社会技术背景，特别是在人类或机器人护理人员的工作功能和工作领域方面。工作功能的描述将独立于执行这些功能的人员或内容。将使用抽象分解空间（ADS）和上下文活动图（ConAD）等各种技术来分析工作领域。 ADS 将在几个不同的抽象层次上映射家庭的总体目标和物理资源之间的关系，例如通过将提供安全的物理环境的目标映射到可用于协助转移的不同资源。 ConAD 将不同的工作职能与不同的工作情况联系起来，例如将药物的管理与一天中的适当时间和家中的位置联系起来。基于对工作功能和工作领域的分析，该项目将起草、完善和验证护理机器人设计要求的正式描述。