This portfolio contains a sample of the work I have produced over the years.
Research Engineer
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden | 2021 to Present
The Robot Dockertor – GitHub Repo
This repo provides a range of Dockerfiles and options for Robot installations, installed with Ubuntu and ROS to get started, quickly and without the hassle of setup, with common robotic platforms.
It is released Open Source under GPU GPL v3.0.
Online data collection tools
A web-based online study platform designed to provide improved customization, ease of use and a free alternative to commercial solutions.
Built using Python, Javascript, jspsych, Flask, TinyDB and Docker. Aiming to Open Source the tool soon, with permission allowing.
Research Associate – Robotics Engineer Safety & Control
Bristol Robotics Lab
Bristol, UK | 2020 to 2021
Professional Robot Dancer
Knowledge Transfer Partnership / Smart Technology Specialist
UWE & ExtraCare Charitable Trust
Bristol, UK | 2018 to 2020
Codesign – with Older Adults and Care Staff
Working with residents, carers and loved ones to create solutions using off-the-shelf technology and IoT devices.
Use Case A: Wandering at Night
Brief:
A resident prone to wandering at night was presented by care staff, a prevalent issue among individuals living with Alzheimer’s (with cases reported to affect up to 60% of people with the condition). The resident would become disoriented at night and often get lost within the village.
Initial Research Methods:
- Focus groups were conducted with the resident, care staff, and family members.
- Incident logging methods were developed (including date/time, location, resident’s condition, etc.).
- An interview was conducted with the resident to assess their familiarity and literacy with technology, perception towards its use, and current adoption level.
- The home environment was observed and reviewed, taking note of current safety measures, with the assistance of the village Well-being Advisor and Alzheimer’s and Dementia support staff (Locksmith).
Findings:
The focus groups revealed that this was a significant source of stress for both the resident and their family. Outside of these incidents, the resident was capable of living independently without care visits.
Incidents of wandering were less frequent when the resident lived with their partner, but always resolved before leaving the house. However, incidents have increased since moving to the village and the distance of wandering.
The resident had a low adoption of technology, indicating that they found it more of a nuisance than it was worth. They were not fond of the idea of a wearable device, as they normally do not wear a watch or jewelry on the wrist, and feared that it may cause extra disturbance or irritation while sleeping. They also often did not charge their mobile phone, indicating the same issue may arise with a wearable device.
Several safety measures were already in place in the resident’s home to prevent wandering, such as motion-activated night lights, large print reminders on the front door, out of sight chain-lock, and large display word clocks.
Proposed Measure:
An automated prompt system was proposed, utilizing smart home door sensors to trigger a message from a smart home speaker when the front door is opened at night, with incident logging and emergency alerts. The interaction-free system would allow the resident to continue their usual behavior without requiring a change to fit the technology. The solution could be retrofitted with minimal impact to their environment, utilizing the village WiFi network, and kept costs low.
Additional logging and reporting of daily or weekly activity would provide peace of mind for the family, allowing for early detection of behavior changes and quick notification of incidents.
Outcome:
The system was implemented and tested for 6 months as part of the project. During this time, incidents reported by care staff reduced significantly, but logs showed that the resident was still wandering. This indicates that the system had a beneficial effect in encouraging the resident to remain at home but was only able addressed the symptom of the issue not the cause itself.
The data gathered by the system has however provided a new insight to the ongoing investigation about the cause of the wandering.
The family responded well to the weekly reports and immediate notifications of incidents, which prompted them to reach out more frequently when they occurred.
Overall the system provided increased safety for the resident, while reducing the impact on care staff and family members.
Use Case B: Social Isolation
Brief:
A resident, previously known for their social and outgoing nature, had begun to reduce their participation in community events.
Initial Research Methods:
– Focus groups were held with the resident, care staff, and family members.
– Interview was conducted with the resident in collaboration with the village Alzheimer’s and Dementia support staff.
Findings:
The focus group confirmed the resident’s previously extroverted personality, and it was noted that the resident had difficulty reading and comprehending the community events calendar, due to changes in eye-wear and low literacy levels. Although the resident showed some memory impairment, the issue was minor, primarily related to misplacing items and forgetfulness.
Proposed Measure 1:
To address the resident’s difficulty with the events calendar, it was proposed to digitize the calendar and present it via a smart home speaker, enabling the resident to inquire about events using voice commands. Simple interactions such as “What’s on today?” or “What time is [event name] event?”.
As this would have a secondary impact to staff when designing the new paper based calendar, a tool was created to output the digital calendar with village branding and printable in a similar format to the previous design.
The smart speaker had secondary benefits through note taking and reminders, which may support the residents memory impairments.
Initial Outcome:
Despite implementing the first proposed solution of utilizing a smart speaker to present the resident with a digitized events calendar, the frequency of their social activities did not increase. Upon further investigation through a second interview with the resident, it was revealed that they claimed to use the device daily. However, when asked to demonstrate their interaction with the technology, they were unable to do so.
One of the major challenges encountered was the resident’s difficulty in remembering the device’s wake word. Even when they were able to recall the wake word, they encountered difficulties in articulating their commands. Despite several attempts at providing additional training and reminders on the proper usage of the device, with the support of the village “Locksmith,” the technology remained unused.
Proposed Method 2:
An effort was made to address the resident’s difficulty in using the device, by introducing a simpler approach. A smart button was connected to the voice assistant, which would read out the daily activity schedule when pressed. The aim was to eliminate the requirement for command recall.
Outcome 2:
Despite the simplification of the interaction method through the use of a smart button linked to the voice assistant, usage data showed an increase in usage by the resident. However, this did not result in an increase in social interaction, as reported by village staff. Another issue was present.
Investigation
To uncover the reason for continued social isolation, further interviews were conducted with the resident. This time, the resident’s claim of using the system was supported by data. However, the root cause of the issue was still unclear after the interview.
To shed light on the matter, interviews were held with the care staff who have frequent interaction with the resident. Through these interviews, it became apparent that the resident was unable to fully understand the system’s responses and was likely using it just to avoid disappointing the staff, despite not benefiting from it.
Proposed Method 3:
The first step taken was to remove the smart speaker and button from the resident’s use.
A new solution was then implemented, where the information would be communicated to the resident’s family and friends who could better understand and relay the information to the resident.
Upon speaking with the resident’s daughter, it was found that they talked at least once a week and were willing to make short morning calls to remind the resident of events.
Outcome 3:
As a result of these efforts, the resident started participating in social events more frequently. The village Locksmith noted that this increase in social interaction had a positive impact on the resident’s overall well-being and mental health.
Use Case C:
Design and build of a smart phone application for residents living within a retirement village. Delivered to empower residents through simplified control of their smart home technology, along with access to accessible information about village services.
Innovation Apartment at Stoke Gifford Village
Outfitted and managed a “Innovation Apartment” showcasing accessible smart tech solutions, also enabling space for field-testing to conduct more realistic data gathering during focus groups and prototype testing.
Smart Technology Loan Scheme
Pioneered and evolved a new services within the company to provide trials with a range of smart home products to residents. Services supplying new revenue streams to fund the charitable trust alongside reduce the need and frequency for care-calls through empowering residents, in turn subsidizing services for care provision.
Services included:
- Advice
- Installation
- On-going support
Links and Media
Extracare.org.uk – UWE Bristol teams up with ExtraCare Charitable Trust
UWE.ac.uk – Knowledge Transfer Partnership with ExtraCare Charitable Trust introduces smart technologies to retirement villages | Research, Business and Innovation blog
Gov.UK – ExtraCare: building better lives for older people – Case study
YouTube – Innovation Across ExtraCare
PDF File – ALAN Presentation 2020 July Trialing Smart Home Technologies – ExtraCare & UWE.pdf
WEAHSN.net – ALAN Seminar: Active Ageing with Smart Technology – West of England Academic Health Science Network
Extracare.org.uk – Home technology: How retirement villages in the UK are welcoming the digital age with open arms
DisabilityRightsandRobotics.co.uk – DisabilityRights&Robotics
Research Associate / Software Engineer
Bristol Robotics Lab
Bristol, UK | 2015 to 2018
CHIRON – “Care at Home using Intelligent Robotic Omni-functional Nodes”
Collaborated to research, design, and implement a ceiling-mounted assistive robotic platform for venerable older adults with a cross-disciplinary involvement from industrial partners in social care, design, and robotics sectors.
BRL.ac.uk – CHIRON Project
UWE.ac.uk – Innovate UK funding for assistive robotic system will offer a ‘new perspective on ageing’
ShadowRobot.com – Chiron Care Robotics Art Challenge
Robotics Business Review – U.K. Consortium Gets $3M Grant for Home Care Robotics