Automatic Daily Activity Schedule Planning
for Simulating Smart House with Elderly
People Living Alone
Can Jiang
1(&) and Akira Mita
2
1 Graduate School of Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi,
Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
canjiang@keio.jp
2 Department of System Design Engineering, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi,
Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Mita@keio.jp
Abstract. A simulation tool that supports developers to build scenarios automatically in multiple simulation platforms is proposed. As an essential part of
this simulator, this study proposed an activity schedule generator to mimic the
daily life of elderly people living alone. This generator outperforms existing
methods of activity schedule planning in three aspects: 1) it is adaptive to the
layout of a simulated smart house; 2) there is no unspecified time in the timeline
of generated schedules; and 3) it generates stable, but not tedious schedules for a
number of days. A real-time location data generator is proposed to convert
generated schedules to simulated real-time location data of the resident, and a
proposed interface converts these simulated location data to simulated records of
virtual passive infrared (PIR) sensors, which can be used to optimize placement
of PIR sensors in a smart house.
Keywords: Elderly people living alone Á Smart home simulator Á Activity of
daily living Á Motivation Á Automatic scenario generation
1 Introduction
The elderly population is increasing worldwide. An estimated 617.1 million people are
aged 65 and over in 2015, and this number is projected to increase to 1 billion in 2030,
and 1.6 billion in 2050 [1]. More than 20% of men and 40% of women aged 65 and
older chose an independent lifestyle in many countries [2]. Pimouguet et al. [3] indicated living alone shortened life expectancy by 0.6 years for elderly people. Elderly
individuals living alone would benefit from specialized care, but a shortage in the
global workforce of aged-care workers [4] has made this difficult.
Under these conditions, smart houses with a sensor network and domestic robots
have been built to address the aged-care worker shortage. The sensor networks provide
real-time health monitoring [5] and a means of detecting emergencies [6], while mobile
domestic robots provide location-based support [7] and services [8] for residents. To
ensure the effectiveness of the sensor networks and robots, real test beds were built to
conduct experiments for collecting data. However, building a test bed is expensive, and
© The Author(s) 2020
M. Jmaiel et al. (Eds.): ICOST 2020, LNCS 12157, pp. 171–183, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51517-1_14
for Simulating Smart House with Elderly
People Living Alone
Can Jiang
1(&) and Akira Mita
2
1 Graduate School of Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi,
Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
canjiang@keio.jp
2 Department of System Design Engineering, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi,
Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Mita@keio.jp
Abstract. A simulation tool that supports developers to build scenarios automatically in multiple simulation platforms is proposed. As an essential part of
this simulator, this study proposed an activity schedule generator to mimic the
daily life of elderly people living alone. This generator outperforms existing
methods of activity schedule planning in three aspects: 1) it is adaptive to the
layout of a simulated smart house; 2) there is no unspecified time in the timeline
of generated schedules; and 3) it generates stable, but not tedious schedules for a
number of days. A real-time location data generator is proposed to convert
generated schedules to simulated real-time location data of the resident, and a
proposed interface converts these simulated location data to simulated records of
virtual passive infrared (PIR) sensors, which can be used to optimize placement
of PIR sensors in a smart house.
Keywords: Elderly people living alone Á Smart home simulator Á Activity of
daily living Á Motivation Á Automatic scenario generation
1 Introduction
The elderly population is increasing worldwide. An estimated 617.1 million people are
aged 65 and over in 2015, and this number is projected to increase to 1 billion in 2030,
and 1.6 billion in 2050 [1]. More than 20% of men and 40% of women aged 65 and
older chose an independent lifestyle in many countries [2]. Pimouguet et al. [3] indicated living alone shortened life expectancy by 0.6 years for elderly people. Elderly
individuals living alone would benefit from specialized care, but a shortage in the
global workforce of aged-care workers [4] has made this difficult.
Under these conditions, smart houses with a sensor network and domestic robots
have been built to address the aged-care worker shortage. The sensor networks provide
real-time health monitoring [5] and a means of detecting emergencies [6], while mobile
domestic robots provide location-based support [7] and services [8] for residents. To
ensure the effectiveness of the sensor networks and robots, real test beds were built to
conduct experiments for collecting data. However, building a test bed is expensive, and
© The Author(s) 2020
M. Jmaiel et al. (Eds.): ICOST 2020, LNCS 12157, pp. 171–183, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51517-1_14