COMPAGNO – A personalised companion to safeguard mobility into old age

Researchers from the COMPAGNO project are studying how people’s mobility can be safe-guarded and improved, even into old age.

Scientific approach

The COMPAGNO project team is developing a „mobility-supporting service“. It helps people sustain their mobility into old age, thus safeguarding their ability to actively participate in social life. ISOE is studying older citizens’ mobility habits and needs, using these to define the re-quirements that future technical solutions and service packages will need to fulfill.

Personalised companion

The „personalised companion“ is a portable system that is easy for users to operate. It ‘learns’ individual mobility habits and stores them as a personal profile, connecting it with information about mobility services, roads, distances and routes. The personalized companion also factors in barriers, specific constraints or handicaps. All of the mobility services are tailored to correspond to the users’ personal profiles and are seamlessly inter-connected: from pedestrian paths to pub-lic transport services, regional and national transport companies and voluntary transport services. With the help of the personalised companion, the user can plan a route and then order a means of transportation, for example. The project partners are also setting up an infrastructure for personal advice to deal with technical problems or specific questions.

Social science-based support

The technical solutions and services that are being developed in the project are being socio-technologically monitored by ISOE researchers. That means that people and technology are seen in contexts that will be designed so that people are not imposed upon from the outside. During a qualitative pilot study, the researchers survey older people about their needs, wishes and problems concerning their mobility. A second survey is studying mobility habits, i.e. which distances are covered on foot, with public transportation or other means of transport. This will be used to identify target groups for future technical solutions and service packages.

Background

Loss of mobility is one of the key risks of ageing. The fear of no longer being able to navigate barriers leads people to retreat into spaces in which they still are able to maneuver. Older people also often find it difficult to navigate a mobility world which is becoming ever faster and more complex. CAMPAGNO wants to play a part in helping people move around safely and inde-pendently, even into old age - and be able to use means of transportation to provide for them-selves and stay actively engaged in social life.

Project partners

Caritasverband Singen-Hegau e.V. (Coordination)
Dr. Thomas + Partner GmbH & Co. KG, Karlsruhe
netzfaktor GmbH, Bochum
minos Sicherheitstechnik GmbH, Polling
Institut für Automatisierungstechnik u. Qualitätssicherung (iAQ) e.V., Heidelberg

Subcontractor

BauWohnberatung, Karlsruhe
Dr. Matthias Bergmann, Berlin

Practice partners

Stadt Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Stadt Singen-Hegau

Funding

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Duration

2012/03 – 2015/02