A survey on assistive chair and related integrated sensing techniques

This paper presents a survey of the current approaches of sit-to-stand assistive chairs. Sitting in a chair and standing up from a seated position are common activities performed by humans on a daily basis. However, older people often encounter difficulties with these activities. The difficulties may cause substantial decreasing of the elderly mobility, leading to inactive participation in society and increasing the risk of chronic diseases that may cause premature death. Therefore, assisting older people to overcome these difficulties has significance for their independent living and active ageing. The assistive devices can be allocated in terms of market available ones and experimental prototypes. Both classes of these devices are discussed in this survey. We also discuss sensing techniques that are currently used with experimental prototypes in addition to those that could be used and build a high level taxonomy of sensing techniques. Following from this survey, a chair capable of delivering assistance-as-needed is proposed.