3D-printed Mobile Assistance Platform (MAP) for rehabilitative robotics

While assistive robotics is not new, research into the category of an assistive walker has been narrow. This research is to conceptualize and prototype a Mobile Assistance Platform for the rehabilitation and daily use of the elderly. Research was conducted via a comparison with current assistive walker options and expanded upon current assistive options by transforming a standard walker into an intelligent assistive robotics platform. The platform was constructed using many open source options to decrease the cost of the platform and allow for a high degree of flexibility for potential future developers. 3D-Printing was also utilized to allow for a quick construction of a semi-functional prototype by circumventing traditional design methods and constraints. Primarily, this robotic platform improves on past designs by providing a framework for multi-node communication and multi-system control by integrating the Robot Operating System (ROS) as the primary software interface. ROS improves on past robotic design by interfacing across multiple platforms like Arduino and Android; this greatly broadens the scope of options that designers have to eliminate issues relating to supporting elderly with assistive robotics.