A proposal of a method to reduce burden of excretion care using robot technology

Abstract

This paper proposes a new method for excretion care by use of robot technology. Excretion care is one of the most burdensome tasks in care, along with bathing care. Among the problems related to excretion care, transfer of the care recipient between a wheelchair and a toilet is the most acute problem. Therefore, we proposed a new transfer method for getting rid of twisting the coupled bodies of both a caregiver and a care recipient by replacing a wheelchair and a toilet automatically while the care recipient is keeping his/her standing position. Experimental results showed that the proposed method was expected to reduce the physical burden of the caregiver during excretion care.