An engineering approach for developing sustainable Ambient Assisted Living solutions

Abstract

Sustainability is one of the main issues of our time. It is a matter of satisfying the present needs without burdening future generations. This affects in particular the three fields of economy, ecology and society. An outstanding challenge is to handle the demographic change and the consequences of an aging society. A social goal is to enable persons with need of care to lead an independent life in their own homes as long as possible. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions can support them by the use of technology. We have investigated how to build sustainable AAL solutions. Our engineering approach leads to such solutions resorting to a sensor-actuator-infrastructure which is already available. This leads to improvements in all three core areas of sustainable development.