translated from Spanish: A robot that helps patients under pulmonary rehabilitation

Luciano Bianchi, a graduate of the Computer Engineering program at the Instituto Tecnológico Buenos Aires (ITBA), developed an autonomous vehicle to facilitate pulmonary rehabilitation procedures. It is a tool designed from monitoring algorithms to assist patients during exercise sessions.
The project was carried out within the framework of the final degree work —available in the Institutional Repository of the University— that sought to develop solutions for the rehabilitation of people with neuromotor diseases. From the contact with the NGO ALPI, aimed at the physical recovery of people suffering from respiratory problems, an alternative was proposed so that patients can take the oxygen tube with them during physical rehabilitation exercises, one of the main problems that affects the realization of the treatment. ALPIBOT is a robot vehicle that follows the person who performs rehabilitation activities closely and autonomously. “Currently it is the doctor or nurse who has to carry the connected oxygen tube. From this development we seek that ALPIBOT can be a tool of daily help during this process”, said the engineer Bianchi.The final objective of the project is that the professionals and doctors who are dedicated to this activity can use the vehicle in the rehabilitation centers from an economic and simple mechanism. The results obtained from the development of simulations and in a real prototype, as well as the opinions of experts involved, confirm the feasibility of the proposed solution. During the trials, two different control algorithms were examined and compared from software simulations and experiments in a motion capture laboratory in a controlled environment. As a result, it was found that the strategy called Follow the Thread was the most accepted for achieving a follow-up of the person at a shorter distance and in a more predictable way.

Original source in Spanish