Navigation assistance and guidance of older adults across complex public spaces: the DALi approach

The Devices for Assisted Living(DALi ) project is a research initiative sponsored by the European Commission under the FP7 programme aiming for the development of a robotic device to assist people with cognitive impairments in navigating complex environments. The project revisits the popular paradigm of the walker enriching it with sensing abilities (to perceive the environment), with cognitive abilities (to decide the best path across the space) and with mechanical, visual, acoustic and haptic guidance devices (to guide the person along the path). In this paper, we offer an overview of the developed system and describe in detail some of its most important technological aspects.