Grant: Engage Grants Program

This research project aims to create a novel controller for a telepresence robot branded the virtualME being developed by CrossWing Inc., of Markham, Ontario. VirtualME is intended to service the elderly population by combining an autonomous monitoring platform with a sophisticated communication system. The goal is to allow Canada's elderly population to retain independence for a longer period of time. This has the potential to relieve strain on the Provincial healthcare systems and reduces Canada's immediate urgency for residential care infrastructure. CrossWing currently has several prototypes of virtualME that are in active development. These prototypes are capable of sophisticated path execution, but currently have no software for mapping, tracking, localization, path planning or obstacle avoidance. It is the goal of the proposed research to develop and implement control systems for path planning, tracking, and obstacle avoidance based on model predictive control. The standards for reliability and safety set by the end-user environments demand application of novel methodology. These specific needs can be met by my research group and would represent a major milestone in the development of the CrossWing's virtualME platform.