Design and implementation of an auto-following robot-car system for the elderly

With the progress of ageing society, more elderly people are living alone. Due to work and school factors, family members are not always available at home to care for the elderly. It is dangerous if they suffer an accident at home alone. Therefore, utilizing Internet of Things (IoTs) technology to enhance the safety of the elderly at home is a possible solution. In this paper, an auto-following robot-car was created to assist elderly people at home. This system includes an Arduino Robot-Car (Arduino BOE-BOT) with ultrasound sensor, wireless networks (Wi-Fi), databases (MySQL), and Android based mobile application (APP). The robot-car can determine its location by calculating its signal from the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI). The use of ultrasound sensors and indoor maps, will allow the robot-car to automatically follow around the elderly person and avoid obstacles in its path.