Section: Bilateral Contracts and Grants with Industry

National Initiatives

Inria Large Initiative Scale PAL (Personaly Assisted Living

[Nov 2009 - Nov 2013]

The objective of this project is to create a research infrastructure that will enable experiments with technologies for improving the quality of life for persons who have suffered a loss of autonomy through age, illness or accident. In particular, the project seeks to enable development of technologies that can provide services for elderly and fragile persons, as well as their immediate family, caregivers and social groups.

The Inria Project-Teams (IPT) participating in this Large-scale initiative action Personally Assisted Living (LSIA Pal) propose to work together to develop technologies and services to improve the autonomy and quality of life for elderly and fragile persons. Most of the associated project groups already address issues related to enhancing autonomy and quality of life within their work programs. This goal of this program is to unite these groups around an experimental infrastructure, designed to enable collaborative experimentation.

Working with elderly and fragile to develop new technologies currently poses a number of difficult challenges for Inria research groups. Firstly, elderly people cannot be classified as a single homogeneous group with a single behavior. Their disabilities may be classified as not just physical or cognitive, motor or sensory, but can also be classified as either chronic or temporary. Moreover, this population is unaccustomed to new technologies, and can suffer from both cognitive and social inhibitions when confronted with new technologies. None-the-less, progress in this area has enormous potential for social and financial impact for both the beneficiaries and their immediate family circle.

The spectrum of possible actions in the field of elderly assistance is large. We propose to focus on challenges that have been determined through meetings with field experts (medical experts, public health responsible, sociologists, user associations...). We have grouped these challenges into four themes: monitoring services, mobility aids, transfer and medical rehabilitation, social interaction services. These themes correspond to the scientific projects and expectations of associated Inria projects. The safety of people, restoring their functions in daily life and promoting social cohesion are all core motivations for this initiative.

e-Motion concentrates his work on mobility aids using the wheelchair.