Balloon Robot: Movement Recognition and Design of Robot

The feeling of being valued is essential for everyone, especially the elderly, which can motivate them to live a healthy life. Without this feeling, the elderly may feel that they are a burden to society. Therefore, we promote a concept that requires the elderly to complete the needs of the robot, thereby increasing the elderly’s feeling of being valued. However, many existing robots are designed with home robots as the starting point for development. Healthcare institutions such as nursing homes need a large number of inexpensive companion/care robots. According to user needs, we first focus on development costs and robot weight. To meet this demand, we are designing an inflatable robot. We divide the robot into two parts: the upper inflatable companion/care robot and the lower smart mobile base station. The upper inflatable companion/care robot is made into an inflatable tumbler and is equipped with minimal circuits to minimize costs. In order to better accompany the elderly, we also installed IMU sensors on the upper robot to detect their movements. The lower smart mobile base station is a smart cart with McNamee wheels. The upper inflatable robot is not connected to the lower smart mobile base station one-to-one (one robot base can serve multiple balloon robots), so the development cost can be controlled. Because it is inflatable, the weight of the upper robot base can be greatly reduced. This increases the ability of the elderly to carry the robot.