Validation of the ULCEAT methodology by applying it in retrospect to the Roboticbed.

Background: In answer to the increasing demand for care by the Japanese oldest portion of the population, an extensive programme of life support robots is under development, advocated by the Japanese government. Roboticbed (RB) is developed to facilitate patients in their daily life in making independent transfers from and to the bed. The bed is intended both for elderly and persons with a disability.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the validity of the user and user's life centred clinical evaluation of assistive technology (ULCEAT) methodology. To support user centred development of life support robots the ULCEAT method was developed. By means of the ULCEAT method the target users and the use environment were re-established in an earlier study.

Method: The validity of the method is tested by re-evaluating the development of RB in retrospect. Six participants used the first prototype of RB (RB1) and eight participants used the second prototype of RB (RB2).

Results: The results indicated that the functionality was improved owing to the end-user evaluations. Therefore, we confirmed the content validity of the proposed ULCEAT method.

Conclusion: In this study we confirmed the validation of the ULCEAT methodology by applying it in retrospect to RB using development process. This method will be used for the development of Life-support robots and prototype assistive technologies.