Proposing an Automatic Evaluation Method of Shoulder Joint ROM during Calisthenics Exercises of Older Adults as Adjunct to the Radio Exercise Program of Pepper

Continuous exercise is essential to prevent motor dysfunction among older adults. Maintaining and improving the regularity of physical activity are considered to be effective for enhancing muscle strength and preventing the onset of dementia. In recent years in Japan, there has been a lack of caregivers taking care of the super-aging population. As one of the solutions, a program was developed to introduce care robots promoting activities of daily living particularly for older adults, especially those with chronic and psychiatric conditions. Care robots, like Pepper, can give instructions on radio calisthenics exercises (RCEs) for older adults. However, it does not have an automatic function of evaluation for ROM of older during shoulder joint RCEs. The aim of this study is to describe the proposal for an automatic evaluation method of shoulder joint ROM exercises during RCEs for older adults. A standard criterion for automatically evaluating the maximum range of motion (M-ROM) of the shoulder joint through RCEs of older adults is added to the radio exercise program in Pepper. The proposed method is an automatic evaluation system much like the scoring by performers like a Karaoke machine. In the future, we will experiment to see if it can actually be judged and examine it for practical use.