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Study purpose. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of strength training exercises on functional capacity, quality of life and perception of well-being in elderly people. Materials and methods. It was used a mixed study with sequential explanatory design, in which 25 elderly females between 62 and 85 years participated in a physical exercise program for eight weeks, with a frequency of 3 days and sessions of 58 minutes on average. The Senior Fitness Test battery of test item was conducted with a grip strength test, heart rate monitoring in a 6-minute test, SF-36 health questionnaire and post-intervention focus group oriented to well-being analysis. Results. Cardiorespiratory capacities, strength and flexibility improved significantly (p < 0.05), but agility and heart rate did not change (p > 0.05). Scores increased in the 8 quality of life dimensions analyzed, and in subjective wellbeing, health improvement was identified in both the self-perception and autonomy of daily activities related to vitality, motivation, social interaction and adherence to physical activity. The findings indicate that physical exercise based on strength training improves functional capacity, health-related quality of life and the well-being of seniors. Conclusions. The findings of this study show that eight weeks of physical exercise based on strength training with affordable means (own body weight, elastic bands and dumbbells) with a frequency of 3 days a week, contribute to improving the functional capacity of strength and flexibility in upper and lower limbs, and cardiorespiratory endurance in older females. This intervention was also found to have a positive impact on quality of life, as well as on the perception of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) frameworks with Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) has proven useful for monitoring and assisting older adults in their own home. However, the difficulties associated with long-term deployments in real-world complex environments are still highly under-explored. In this work, we first present the MoveCare system, an unobtrusive platform that, through the integration of a SAR into an AAL framework, aimed to monitor, assist and provide social, cognitive, and physical stimulation in the own houses of elders living alone and at risk of falling into frailty. We then focus on the evaluation and analysis of a long-term pilot campaign of more than 300 weeks of usages. We evaluated the system's acceptability and feasibility through various questionnaires and empirically assessed the impact of the presence of an assistive robot by deploying the system with and without it. Our results provide strong empirical evidence that Socially Assistive Robots integrated with monitoring and stimulation platforms can be successfully used for long-term support to older adults. We describe how the robot's presence significantly incentivised the use of the system, but slightly lowered the system's overall acceptability. Finally, we emphasise that real-world long-term deployment of SARs introduces a significant technical, organisational, and logistical overhead that should not be neglected nor underestimated in the pursuit of long-term robust systems. We hope that the findings and lessons learned from our work can bring value towards future long-term real-world and widespread use of SARs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a system that stems from the integration of an autonomous mobile robot with an IoT-based monitoring system to provide monitoring, assistance, and stimulation to older adults living alone in their own houses. The creation of an Internet of Robotics Things (IoRT) based on the interplay between pervasive smart objects and autonomous robotic systems is claimed to enable the creation of innovative services conceived for assisting the final user, especially in elderly care. The synergy between IoT and a Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) was conceived to offer robustness, reconfiguration, heterogeneity, and scalability, by bringing a strong added value to both the current SAR and IoT technologies. First, we propose a method to achieve the synergy and integration between the IoT system and the robot; then, we show how our method increases the performance and effectiveness of both to provide long-term support to the older adults. To do so, we present a case-study, where we focus on the detection of signs of the frailty syndrome , a set of vulnerabilities typically conveyed by a cognitive and physical decline in older people that concur in amplifying the risks of major diseases hindering the capabilities of independent living. Experimental evaluation is performed in both controlled settings and in a long-term real-world pilot study with 9 older adults in their own apartments, where the system was deployed autonomously for, on average, 12 weeks. • We analyze the limitations of IoT and SARs within a home-based AAL setting. • The interplay between the IoT, the robot, and the user can overcome such limitations. • Each component both assists and is assisted by the other ones. • This creates a mutual-aid actor-network; we present it in a case-study. • We demonstrate in an extensive on-the-field trial with end-users our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

* The Appendix contained some inaccuracies in the numbering of Tables and in the text. The accompanying erratum should read: The following paper, " I Integrating Social Assistive Robots, IoT, Virtual Communities and Smart Objects to Assist at-Home Independently Living Elders: the MoveCare Project i ", https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-021-00843-0, was inadvertently published containing the below listed mistakes. [Extracted from the article]

In an ageing society, the at-home use of Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) could provide remote monitoring of their users' well-being, together with physical and psychological support. However, private home environments are particularly challenging for SARs, due to their unstructured and dynamic nature which often contributes to robots' failures. For this reason, even though several prototypes of SARs for elderly care have been developed, their commercialisation and wide-spread at-home use are yet to be effective. In this paper, we analyse how including the end users' feedback impacts the SARs reliability and acceptance. To do so, we introduce a Monitoring and Logging System (MLS) for remote supervision, which increases the explainability of SAR-based systems deployed in older adults' apartments, while also allowing the exchange of feedback between caregivers, technicians, and older adults. We then present an extensive field study showing how long-term deployment of autonomous SARs can be accomplished by relying on such a feedback loop to address any potential issue. To this end, we provide the results obtained in a 130-week long study where autonomous SARs were deployed in the apartments of 10 older adults, with the aim of possibly serving and assisting future practitioners, with the knowledge collected from this extensive experimental campaign, to fill the gap that currently exists for the widespread adoption of SARs. • Socially assistive robots are promising tools for older adults independent living. • Private apartments are challenging environments, impacting the robustness of robots. • Results from a 130 weeks study in 10 older adults apartments using autonomous robots. • Remote supervision increased the acceptance of socially assistive robots. • Lessons learned from managing a long-term deployment, towards long-term autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]