Gábor Fazekas

Home care robot for socially supporting the elderly: focus group studies in three European countries to screen user attitudes and requirements.

The growing number of elderly individuals presents new challenges for society. Many elderly individuals have physical or cognitive impairments and require support from caregivers. An attempt to overcome the limitations caused by the lack of human caregivers is the inclusion of assistive technology such as socially active robots. The Domeo-project of the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme of the European Union aims to develop a new companion robotic system that would allow assistance to the elderly. The requirements and attitude of the potential users and caregivers have been assessed in Austria, France and Hungary. The robot functions were demonstrated to the participants. Three focus groups were formed: potential end users, older caregivers and younger caregivers. The discussions were recorded and processed according to six aspects: (i) acceptability and privacy, (ii) pertinence of services, (iii) possible obstacles, (iv) motivation level to use the proposed services, (v) organizational issues and (vi) recommendations. Minor differences were observed between the countries, but there were considerable differences regarding the age of the participants. The younger caregivers want to be assured of the safety of their client and to receive immediate notification in case of an emergency. As for the elderly, the most important aspect is to gain a companion and a physical helper. Many of the recommendations can be taken into consideration during robot development, but some of them are not realistic at present.

Gathering of fat robots with limited visibility and without global navigation

In the present paper, we introduce two different algorithms for the two dimensional gathering problem for synchronous, fat (disk-like) robots with no global navigation or communication, and with limited visibility. One of the algorithms is a slightly modified version of the local smallest enclosing circle (local SEC) algorithm. The other algorithm uses a new method of the gathering: the robots moves towards the furthest visible robot, and the robots on the perimeter of the visibility graph applies a bigger extent of move than the others. With the help of computer simulations, the two proposed algorithms are shown to be applicable for the gathering problem above and they perform better than the earlier simple SEC algorithm developed for point like robots.

On upper bounds for code distance and covering radius of designs in polynomial metric spaces

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present new upper bounds for code distance and covering radius of designs in arbitrary polynomial metric spaces. These bounds and the necessary and sufficient conditions of their attainability were obtained as the solution of an extremal problem for systems of orthogonal polynomials. For antipodal spaces the behaviour of the bounds in different asymptotical processes is determined and it is proved that this bound is attained for all tight 2k-design.

Robotics in rehabilitation: successes and expectations.

The first steps toward the development of rehabilitation robots were made in the late 1980s. However, despite more than 20 years of development, rehabilitation robots have still not found widespread use in everyday life, and the field remains mainly a topic of academic research. This is in contrast to the lively development in the general market for robotics. The International Federation of Robotics announced that 2011 was the most successful year for industrial robots since 1961, as sales increased by 38%. The number of service robots for professional and domestic use increased by 15% in the same year. With regard to robots for supporting people with disabilities, the number of sales was still low (156 units in 2011), but the International Federation of Robotics considers this field to be a potentially huge future market. Several national and international projects focus on this area (World Robotics–Industrial Robots, 2012).

Local Center of Gravity Based Gathering Algorithm for Fat Robots

Swarm intelligence has become an intensively studied research area in the last few years. Gathering of mobile robots is one of its basic topics that aims the assembly of the scattered robots on the smallest possible area. In this chapter, we present a new and effective algorithm for this task supposing an obstacle-free plan, limited visibility, and synchronous, fat (disc-like) robots without global navigation, communication, or memory. The key idea of the algorithm is that in case of each robot after detecting the visible neighbouring robots it sets the target of the next step based on the encountered visible robots’ center of gravity. The new algorithm was successfully tested using computer simulations for several parameter and swarm size values and it achieved similar or better performance as the studied previously published algorithms in all of the cases.

A fast image processing based robot identification method for Surveyor SRV-1 robots

This paper focuses on a barcode pattern based kin recognition, identification and distance evaluation method for mobile-robot swarms. Every robot in the swarm is equipped with a unique, barcode like pattern. The robots capture images of other teammates and then the images are analysed by a Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) in order to find kin robots on the captured image. After FFT analysis the identification is also possible with our edge detection based identification method. Moreover one of the best features of this method is the capability of estimating the robot-robot distances with a single camera image. Our method was implemented on physical robots and was tested using the Surveyor SRV-1 robot system.

Compact image processing based kin recognition, distance measurement and identification method in a robot swarm

In this paper we develop a reliable visual recognition, distance measurement and identification algorithm to detect and identify kin robots in a mobile-robot swarm. Every robot in the swarm is equipped with a zebra pattern and our idea is based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), which has a relatively low complexity. We sampled the camera images of the robot by a vertical sampling method, and the sampled one dimensional vectors were the inputs of the FFT. The basis of the pattern localization is that there is a distinguishable peak in the FFT spectrum if the sample went through a horizontal zebra pattern. If this peak is larger than an empirically determined threshold value the algorithm finds the location of a kin robot. Moreover, based on the FFT spectrum this method it is capable to estimate the distance of the kin robot. Besides, we modified the zebra pattern to a barcode like pattern, and so the identification of the swarm members is also possible. To test our idea several experiments were accomplished with Surveyor SRV-1 robots, which have an on-board camera system. The captured pictures of the observer robot were sent to and processed in a PC using MATLAB program.

Evaluation of a companion robot based on field tests with single older adults in their homes

ABSTRACT The growing number of older adults places insurmountable load on family members and professional caregivers. Assistive technology with the aid of robots can present a possible solution. The goal of this article was to test a companion robot supporting older adults in their home environments. Eight senior volunteers were involved in the field test. They all lived alone and were self-supporting. The robot was capable of providing cognitive assistance to manage the user’s daily routine. Each participant used the robot for 94.9 ± 19.6 days. The primary communication modality was voice communication in their natural language, while the touch screen display was also available for interaction with the robot. The assistance given in daily living was evaluated by subjective (the user’s opinion) and objective (logged data) criteria. The most useful and the least reliable robot functions according to the users were the navigation and the verbal communication. Entertainment, locomotion, and weather forecast were the most frequently used functions, while the shopping list was the least popular. The companion robot used in the test was accepted enthusiastically by the senior subjects. Specific robot functions (mainly navigation in the apartment and the speech recognition) require improvement to better accommodate real circumstances.

Sodium Pentosan Polysulfate Reduced Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion-Induced Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Responses in an Experimental Animal Model.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) remains an independent risk factor for mortality and morbidity after vascular surgery (affecting the renal arteries) or aortic surgery (requiring suprarenal aortic clamping). These types of vascular surgery produce renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, a common cause of AKI. The present studies aimed at monitoring the course of renal I/R injury at the cellular level and investigating the efficacy of long-term preoperative and single-shot intraoperative administration of sodium pentosan polysulfate (PPS) to protect renal tissue from acute I/R injury both in native and diabetic kidneys in rats. Western blot analyses of the proapoptotic (bax) and antiapoptotic (bcl-2) signaling pathways, as well as the extent of DNA damage (phospho-p53), were performed. Oxidative stress followed upon the termination of malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione, thiol group, and superoxide dismutase plasma levels. Inflammatory changes were measured by the determination of serum tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1 levels. Morphological changes were detected by histological examinations. Our results showed that the long-term administration of PPS has an advantage in reducing I/R kidney injury in diabetic rats, while high-dose, single-shot parenteral administration of PPS prior to revascularization might be useful in nondiabetic rats.

Dilemmas of the reconstruction of the major pelvic artery due to infectious aortic graft complication

INTRODUCTION In the pelvic region thrombendarterectomy and bypass procedures are the most commonly performed procedures to treat peripheral artery occlusive diseases with chronic, severe circulation failure caused by atherosclerosis. Biologic and synthetic grafts can also be used in bypass surgeries. Application of synthetic grafts can acutely increase the development of the infectious graft complication and its mortality is still between 70 and 75% in pelvic processes. We describe the difficulties and dilemmas of an infectious aortobifemoral graft. CASE PRESENTATION 58-year-old female patient with right lower limb trophic ulcer underwent a DSA examination showing a bilateral iliac occlusion and aortobifemoral bypass surgery with Dacron graft implantation was performed. Re-occlusion and infection of the graft led to an in situ silver Dacron graft replacement. Due to the one-sided re-occlusion, a femoro-femoral crossover bypass surgery applying silver graft was performed. Despite the previously described procedures the infectious process got worse and autologous deep vein reconstruction was required beside the removal of the infectious synthetic grafts at the same time. DISCUSSION There are local and extraanatomical solutions to reduce infectious graft complication. In pelvic infections bypass surgeries using autologous deep vein can show the best results. This procedure is the trustworthiest but also the most straining technique due to the extension of surgical time and increased blood loss. The proper surgical strategy should be selected on individual bases including cardiopulmonary load ability, patient age and technical/infrastructural possibilities.