Context-aware MAS to support elderly people (demonstration)

This paper presents a context-aware, multiagent system for care of the elderly. The system combines state-of-the-art sensor technologies to detect falls and other health problems, and calls for help in the case of an emergency or issues a warning in cases not needing urgent attention. When deployed at the home of an elderly person it provides them with 24-hour monitoring. Consequently, the elderly may live alone at home, even at an advanced age. The health problems are detected with six groups of agents processing the sensor data and augmenting the data with higher-level information, such as the posture of the person, his/her activity and the context of the situation's environment. The system has been tested in several live demonstrations, where it achieved an excellent performance in complex situations. The system is based on the set of agents observing the elderly person from various points of view, and combining the location and inertial sensors to provide context awareness.