An Adaptive Park Bench System to Enhance Availability of Appropriate Seats for the Elderly: A Safety Engineering Approach for Smart City

Abstract

An important part of older adults' social integration is their involvement in urban life outdoors. While going outdoors contributes to participation and well-being, older adults often avoid to go outdoors because of deteriorating health and individual perceptions of threats to their safe mobility. A particular perceived threat to safety and a crucial barrier to go outdoors is the perception of lacking appropriate seating possibilities. To mitigate this barrier, we introduce an adaptive park bench system as an innovative form of smart urban objects. The system of adaptive park benches seeks to ensure that each pedestrian has available an appropriate seat when necessary. Empty adaptive park benches are particularly appropriate due to an active assistance functionality for sitting down and standing up. We developed an AI based algorithm and validated its effectiveness by conducting a simulation of a use case scenario created with domain experts.