Abstract

The current trend in robotics is to develop new markets in service and medical sectors. In this respect, physical assistant robots are receiving significant attention in the research community to produce new personal care robots able to contribute directly towards improvement in the quality of life of humans. The global ageing societal concerns are a major driver for these efforts and the potential for eventual commercialisation is high but new markets have to be developed. The presentation will describe research to develop wearable exoskeleton prototypes for elderly persons in the AAL projects EXO -LEGS and AXO -SUIT so that they stay independent living in their own homes for as long as possible. The presentation will describe the following key aspects of the research: • Determining of primary end users’ motion requirements for normal daily living • Formulating technical specifications of the needed wearable exoskeletons bearing in mind technical and non-technical challenges for achieving required performances while being compliant to international safety regulations • Developing concepts, designing and realising prototypes and commissioning them for tests with end users in the participating countries • Development of appropriate commercialisation plans There are medical and non-medical applications to be considered and an overview of these issues in the urgently needed new robot products will also be described.