A Network Control System of Mobile Robot for Elderly Care

With the rapid aging of the population, the elderly care services have become urgent needs and severe challenges. Robotic technology provides a potential opportunity to meet the needs of elderly care. Based on cloud technology, architecture of a mobile robot network control system is designed, which is composed of a remote monitoring platform, a cloud platform, and a mobile robot. A novel communication message format is designed to realize the communication between the mobile robot and the remote monitoring operator. A visual odometer is realized on the mobile robot, and VSLAM (Visual simultaneous localization and mapping) is implemented on the cloud platform. In the remote monitoring state, the mobile robot moves according to the instructions from the monitoring operator and uploads the video of the living environment of the elderly as well as the detection results of obstacles in the environment to the cloud platform. In the autonomous motion state, the mobile robot responds to the call of the elderly or performs the indoor inspection function based on vision and laser ranging sensors. A prototype system of networked control mobile robot is established, and the experimental research is conducted to verify the function and performance of the designed system.