Sleep Robotics
Sleep plays a fundamental role in health and well-being. Bad sleep hygiene, sleep deprivation, and sleep disorders increase risk of cardiovascular diseases and have a negative impact on mood, cognitive performance, and motor function. The vision of the Somnomat project is to develop autonomous robotic platforms that are able to monitor the users during sleep and to interact with them to improve their sleep and overall quality of life.
Contact
Alexander Breuss
Vestibular stimulation appears to have remarkable effect on sleep and it may be exploited to improve relaxation, to facilitate falling asleep, and to improve sleep quality. In a first step of the project we are exploring this principle by investigating how vestibular stimulation influences sleep and how it could be applied to enhance sleep quality.
Additionally to the capability to provide the desired stimulation, an autonomous system requires monitoring features to track the state of the user and control algorithms to modulate the intervention to be applied. In the first implementation of this closed-loop concept, we are focusing on snoring. Particularly, we are developing an intelligent bed that tries to reduce snoring activity by autonomously influencing the posture of the user during sleep.
Subprojects:
Effects of Vestibular Stimulation on Sleep
Within this project we aim to gain a deeper scientific knowledge about the impact of vestibular stimulation on sleep onset and sleep quality. Our findings build the base for developing new treatment methods to improve sleep quality and may offer new non-pharmacological therapeutic approaches for various patient populations.
More about effects of vestibular stimuli on sleep in elderly
Controlled Positional Therapy
Roughly one third of the general population is affected by an intermittent partial or complete obstruction of the upper airways during the night. This is most often caused by the physiological reduced muscle tone during sleep and mainly present in supine position. We have developed two specialized robotic beds for the treatment of habitual snoring and positional obstructive sleep apnea that detect airway obstructions and trigger position changes.
More about controlled positional therapy for the treatment of sleep-related breathing disorders
Unobtrusive Sensing for Monitoring Sleep and Health Parameters
Using unobtrusive sensors directly integrated into the bed, we monitor physiological signals like body position, breathing, and heart rate. The goal is to use sensors that do not influence the comfort of the user negatively or cause any privacy concerns – while still allowing us to estimate the sleep efficiency of the users as well as to monitor the overall health. We experiment with sensorized textiles, bioradar sensors, and wearable sensors.