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Hyper-Tether is a highly functional system which uses tethers to connect a wide range of robots, vehicles and humans. Home Oxygen Therapy (H.O.T.) is a medical treatment for severe lung diseases in which the patients are supplied concentrated oxygen through a cannula. The need to carry a portable oxygen supply device limits the quality of life of the patients, and so we have designed a robot follower using Hyper-Tether. The robot, which can carry an oxygen tank and follow behind the patient, was tested by H.O.T. users and evaluated using questionnaires. This paper describes the development and testing of the robot follower, with particular focus on iterative design based on patients' feedback.

Home oxygen therapy (HOT) is a medical treatment for patients suffering from severe lung diseases. Although walking outdoors is recommended for patients to maintain physical strength, patients always have to carry a portable oxygen supplier which is not sufficiently light weight for this purpose. Our ultimate goal is to develop a mobile robot to carry an oxygen tank and follow a patient in an urban outdoor environment. We have proposed a mobile robot with a tether interface to detect the relative position of the foregoing patient. In this paper, we improve mobile platform mechanisms and active wheels to maximize the step height which can be negotiated, and to allocate sufficient space in the main body to carry an actual oxygen tank. The following control algorithm is also improved and its effectiveness is demonstrated in an outdoor experiment.

Home Oxygen Therapy (H.O.T.) is a medical treatment for severe lung diseases in which the patients are supplied concentrated oxygen. This paper investigates the use of a follower robot as a support device for H.O.T. patients, consisting of a two-wheeled differential drive robot connected to the user by tether. Two different control algorithms were studied using dynamic simulation and motion capture experiments with healthy subjects. In further experiments with H.O.T. patients, including a questionnaire survey, it was confirmed that Follow the Leader control was capable of following the user’s trajectory more accurately than Pseudo-Joystick control, and that overall H.O.T. patients showed a preference for Follow the Leader control.