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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ACANTO (ACANTO: A CyberphysicAl social NeTwOrk using robot friends)

Teaser

Summary

\"The overarching goal of ACANTO is the develop a combination of
technologies to spur older adults into a regular and sustained level
of physical activity. ACANTO\'s solution rests on two pillars:

1. the development of a robotic friend (the FriWalk) to support the
execution of everyday activities,

2. the development of an intelligent system, called Cyberphysical Social Network (CPSN),
that produces recommendation for social activities matching the
profile of the users, as they result from the observation collected on
the ground through the FriWalk.

The FriWalk is robotic walker embedding a large portfolio of solutions
to sense the surrounding environment, plan the most comfortable and
safe routes to the user\'s destination, and, where required, gently
guide the user in her navigation of the space. The robot constantly
observes its user noting all relevant changes in her physical and
emotional state and it lowers the barriers raised by user\'s fears and lack
of confidence. Furthermore, the FriWalk keeps track of the users\'
physical exercises, and monitors the evolution of the strength and the
possible improvement of the gait. The observations on the user state are
consolidate into her/his profile.

The CPSN collects the profiles of the user and aggregates them into
circles. By putting together the description of the circles and of the
environment the recommendation system is in condition to recommend
social activities. The objective of the CPSN is to stimulate the user
social life offsetting the effects of loneliness. Another important
way for the system to lower the user\'s barriers to physical activity
is by helping the user translate the intention of an activity into the
so called \"\"implementation intentions\"\", a concrete plan detailing
logistic and practical aspects.

In the context outlined above, the concrete goals of the project are:

1. development of the FriWalk: from the sensing subsystems to the
mechatronic components and to the user interface,

2. development of the recommendation system and of all the software
components animating the CPSN,

3. development of an external infrastructure (cloud and environment
sensing) that supports both the conception and the execution of social
activities,

4. large involvement of users and stakeholder in the development of
the different components and in the definition of realistic
exploitation routes.\"

Work performed

\"During P1 and P2, the ACANTO consortium has:
1. established the project\'s management structure and defined data management and quality plans.
2. Completed the collection of requirements and the study on Privacy issues. Such requirements are related to the application of our both in a \"\"social\"\" context (e.g., a Museum) and
in a clinical environment. The requirement have been first sketched in a preliminary form and then refined using the prototype (at the different stages of completion).
3. Defined the basic procedures for Ethics management and their overarching principles. Based on these principles, we have produced a number of Ethic Clearance applications required by the different user studies.
4. Integrated a first group of functionalities into a first version of the prototype, which has been used to refine the requirements.
5. identified and developed a second group of functionalities, which have been integrated in the final version of the prototype of the walker.
6. Studied the state of the art on dynamic models that describe user group motion in competitive and cooperative situations and sketched the ACANTO solution, which have been implemented in the reactive planner of the walker.
7. developed the software models for user profiles, circles and activities.
8. completed the development of CPSN and recommendation systems based on the software models and on a cloud infrastructure.
9. Developed and refined the user interfaces that will be used both for the clinical applications of the FriWalk, and for the public applications of FriWalk and CPSN.
10. Set up the framework for clinical validation (e.g., certification of the walker and Ethics management procedures).
11. Started a wide range of communication activities toward the scientific community, the stakeholders and the members of the public.
12. Managed a number of contingencies materialised during the execution of the project (including Envitel Withdrawal).\"

Final results

Our evaluation on ACANTO\'s progress beyond the state of the art
so far can be condensed in the following lines:

1. Our studies in WP1 have revealed new pathways to the analysis
of the main barriers and to the development of motivation strategies.

2. Older have strong privacy concerns and require an easy interface to
use to express how much privacy they want to trade to get engaged in
exciting activities. In general, they tend to be prone on sharing
their data only when a visible payoff is apparent.

3. Our work on competitive interaction between humans in shared
spaces, has brought to the definition of mathematical models (on
clothoid curves and HFSM) which are directly usable for planning and
control.

4. The use of our vision-based solutions in the FriWalk produces
highly accurate measurements on Gait and Stride, as well as skeleton analysis
and emotion recognition, which essential for our clinical applications and can be used also
for other purposes.

5. The specific mechatronic design that we adopted combined with the
use of haptic interfaces allows us to develop ground-breaking
algorithms for different guidance solutions such as variable stiffness
guidance, guidance based on the differential action of brakes and suggestion
of a correct walking speed.

The most important impacts that we expect to have are the following.

a. Evidence for the benefits of service robotics, based on proof of
concept and involvement of stakeholders. At the moment we have directly involved 293
stakeholders in the walker design. Besides, a
number of public appearances has increased the project visibility
among different classes of stakeholders, which has further been
amplified by our website and by our participation to the social media.

b, Reduction of admissions and days spent in care institutions and
prolongation of time spent in own home. The consortium has identified
a correct management of the hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation
phase as critical for the patient recovery. This allowed us to delimit
a clear area of intervention for the therapeutic functionalities of
the FriWalk, for which their application could make a real difference
on her functional recovery after discharge. Actual numbers will be
available only after the pilot studies, but we have set the bar of our
success to 50% decrease of repeated admissions to the hosptial and
death of the patients.

c. Improvement in Quality of Life of older persons and of their
carers. The project goal is that the 30% of participants will
perceive a reduction of loneliness and this will be evaluated by
administering questionnaires.

d. Global leadership in advanced solutions for active and healthy
ageing. The attention attracted from international media suggest a
potential public appreciation on the relevance of ACANTO\'s challenges
ad on the originality of ACANTO\'s approach. The number of scientific
publications produced during P1 and P2 (34 papers) is in
line with the ACANTO ambitious expectations. Finally,our IPR
protection actions (currently 4 patents filed) make us confident on
the ACANTO potential for creating industrial innovation.