DEVELOPMENT OF MITTHAR-THE COMPANION ROBOT FOR LONELY ELDERLY PEOPLE

Human-Robot interaction research is still relatively new compared to traditional service robots used to deliver hospital meals or vacuum cleaning or providing security services. The exponential increase rate in the elderly population across the globe made the service robots for personal use as the need of the hour. The proposed robot acts as a companion for the elderly people serves them in wide range of applications such as: communication that enables the elderly person to be in touch with his family, friends or care professionals; Safety measures in terms of reminders for medication fall detection and alert along with a emergency notification system; diary making which helps the care recipient to improve his daily life by noting and updating his daily agenda, keeping and dispensing his personal items; entertainment which improves his mood by means of playing his favourite media or by cognitive exercises and brain stimulating games. The Unique Selling Point (USP) of the proposed robot lies in the synergic combination of the features of a mobile companion robot with that of a stationary “smart home” solution. The mobile robot can navigate autonomously, or by means of voice commands given by the user. It can give remainders about their medication, give alerts to their care takers if any fall is detected , keeping and dispensing medicines, keys, wallet and other items that may be frequently be required by elderly and providing interactive media access for entertainment. It can also stimulate the brains of the care recipient by means of games deployed in it