AIRGUIDE: A Learning Aerial Guide for the Elderly and Disabled

Robotic assistants can greatly improve the life of the ever-increasing elderly and disabled population. However, current efforts in assistive robotics are focused on ground robots and manipulators in controlled, indoor environments. AIRGUIDE will break away from this by exploiting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their versatile motion capabilities. Specifically, the project will develop aerial assistive technology for independent mobility of an elderly or disabled person over a wide, outdoor area, via monitoring risks and guiding the person when needed. Our fundamental approach is to develop a novel learning and planning control framework, by exploiting interdisciplinary, artificial-intelligence and control-theoretic insights. The framework will be implemented and validated in a case study where an at-risk person is monitored over e.g. a park, warned about risks like falling and unsafe areas, and actively guided to safety or a desired destination when required.

The project is being funded under the Young Teams program of the Romanian Authority for Scientific Research, via UEFISCDI (project number PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2016-0670, contract number 9/2018). It takes place at the Automation Department of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for a duration of two years and a total budget of about 100 000 EUR.

More details can be found on the dedicated website of the project, at http://airguide.busoniu.net/.