AAL - Victorya, a robot for integrated care@home and peace of mind of carers

Be Well - VictoryaHome - Create Possibilities Integrated care at home and peace of mind of carers http://www.victoryahome.eu/ VictoryaHome is the winner of the AAL Award 2015. AAL is the most targeted EU-funded program to welfare technology. This award is then important in the scientific community for this area of research. 1. Active and healthy ageing together with the people we love. Isn't it what we all wish for ourselves and our beloved ones? VictoryaHome is a project co-funded by the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme aiming at enabling people to live their lives the way they want, and helping people to care for each other. Important values are: peace of mind, pleasure, never being alone, safe and secure, feeling connected, sharing feelings and experiences, helping the helpers, personal care and making caring popular. Be Well - VictoryaHome - Create Possibilities; this is the vision of a project that enriches the older users' lives with immediate human presence. What if at Irene's home there was a robot that "knows" what is happening with her and shares this knowledge with her carers? It does not tell all it knows, but will let them know when there might be a problem. The robot knows its user, if she took medication or if she has fallen down and it can automatically call for help. At this stage the carer can come in the house in a "virtual way" using the robot's tele-presence function. VictoryaHome helps Irene to take action for her well-being with her own hands. She knows that doing so will let her carers stay informed, showing she is okay so that the carers will feel confident. 2. Service oriented VictoryaHome is an open platform which integrates the following services: activit y monitoring, fall detection, medication adherence and tele-presence visits. Development of services followed an iterative design process with older adults, informed carers, formal carers and other stakeholders. Trials involving more than 30 older adults and hundreds of caregivers took place in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Portugal, where older adults at home interacted with remote informed carers (family and friends) and professional carers using the VictoryaHome services. 3. Targeting the carers Not only the older adults but also their formal and informed carers benefit from this project. Peace-of-mind provided to the informed carers can be a major advantage. Regarding the formal carers in care organizations, they also benefit if the informed carers are able to assist in a meaningful way, as this can reduce the care burden and costs associated to the care processes. 4. Strong focus on business strategy Strong collaboration took place between the business partners and the care institutions. This was vital to ensure a proposed solution that satisfies the needs of the older adults and their caregivers. The main goal to the near future is to develop a sustainable set of services after based on the project's results. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKC6fI5fZVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAvbpR25p0c http://www.internationalinnovation.com/care-in-the-clouds/ Contact info: J. Artur Serrano (Technical and Scientific Manager) jarturserrano@gmail.com

What if at Irene's home there was a robot that "knows" what is happening with her in the house and share this knowledge with her carers? It does not tell all it knows, but will let them know when there might be a problem. The robot knows its user, if she took medication and when, whether she is taking enough water and what her activity level is. It also knows if she has fallen down and can automatically call someone to help. At this stage the carer can come in the house "virtually" using the tele-presence function. The robot will put in the older adult's hands the responsibility of drinking water more frequently, taking the medicines on time and being more active. She knows this will let her carers stay informed regarding key status indicators and activit ies, showing she is OK so that the carers will feel greater confidence as a result. Four trials will take place in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Portugal where older adults at home and remote informal carers will interact with the developed product.