| Funding Agency | Korean scientific cooperation network with the European Research Area (KORANET) |
| Program | Pilot Joint Call on Research for Life-long Health |
| ID/Acronym | CAROFEX |
| Grant Period | October 2010—September 2011 |
| Principal Investigator | Dr. Axel Graeser, Bremen University, Germany |
| Researchers |
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| Project Group | Gökhan Berker,Ufuk Şirin |
| Status | Inactive |
Assistive robots for the disabled and elderly such as the robot systems FRIEND (IAT, University of Bremen) and KARES (HWRS, KAIST) are an important research topic in all countries that face the demographic challenge. FRIEND and KARES are assistive robots that support handicapped people (e.g. patients with high spinal cord injuries) who depend on personal care for 24h/day in all day living and in all professional life. CAROFEX brings together researchers with expertise in robot control and image processing in order to perform research in compliance control of the robot and in image processing for robot control via active mimic of the user. By using this approach, even people with strong physical constraints can interact with the robot and may even be able to program new support scenarios. CAROFEX contributes to the call in the areas of engineering, robotics, and social science as it helps the disabled users to participate in professional and social life. CAROFEX aims at joint research in three very demanding areas for autonomous robot control:
– Robot control for compliant behavior in tactile robot /user interaction (e.g. if the robot supports eating and drinking and feeds the disabled user)
– Oscillation free movement of flexible light weight robots
– Robust image processing by introduction of feedback structures in image processing algorithms applied to fast direct robot control by facial expressions