Experiments and Applications of Support System for Caregivers with Optical Fiber Sensor and Cleaning Robot

This research aims to propose a supporting system with sensor network technology and cleaning robots to alleviate workload of caregivers in welfare facilities. Our focus is to reduce the labor load of nurses that has increased with elderly population growth. On the basis of the system requirements clarified from a site survey in a nursing facility, this paper proposes an integration method of sensors that keeps monitoring situations in a facility and cleaning robots that can approach an incident location detected by the sensing system to confirm safety of facility residents. Keywords-monitoring system; sensor network; cleaning robot; nursing.