Physical and cognitive decline associated with the natural aging process require the implementation of integrated and ambulant assistive technologies for the elderly to sustain independence with respect to Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). These technologies, framed in the context of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), instantiate environments where sensor modules and robotic agents mitigate and/or compensate for the declining dexterity and diminishing strength of the occupants. Research trends in this field suggest the importance of such assistive services, especially considering that all emerging industrial nations are experiencing agingrelated demographic change. In this paper the authors propose the design and implementation of a low cost, ad hoc Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) system that integrates seamlessly into a WiFidependent mobile rover (i.e., TurtleBot) system, effectively creating a versatile yet robust de facto Cyber-Physical Network (CPN) where gathered WSN sense-data is used to trigger events in the rover. The system will first be outlined, followed by a detailing of a concrete use-case example, where a laser emitted from one WSN module to a series of photosensitive sensors in another is used to detect the presence and location of unexpected objects (e.g., collapsed person and/or furniture etc.); and where the rover is instructed to autonomously navigate to this location to further ascertain the status of said object(s). The example intends to illustrate the potential of a multi-layered, energy-efficient, selfconfigurable, scalable and reliable sensing-actuating system that can be added to existing WiFi networks without technical difficulty or network modifications.@en

The present paper details the development of a cost-effective Fall-Detection and -Intervention System (FaDIS) based on Wireless Sensor Network technologies. The system is designed to integrate into existing low-tech homes, to enable Ambient Assisted Living environments, where software and hardware devices attempt to facilitate a safe and proactive independent living. FaDIS is designed to operate both as an add-on component to existing centralized solutions (complete or otherwise) and as an integral yet independent component of decentralized, scalable, and expandable solutions. Accordingly, FaDIS was implemented in two parts. Part 1 was developed as a scaled proof-of-concept that served as the foundation for Part 2, which is the principal focus of the paper. In Part 2, FaDIS is developed as a fully operational, real-scale system that uses a self-healing mesh network protocol, where its own BeagleBone Black development platform serves as the sink node, and where two Class 2M 10° line lasers are used in conjunction with light dependent resistors to gauge the probabilities of an emergency event based on the estimated dimensions of the collapsed object. In both parts, if FaDIS construes the probabilities of an emergency event as high, the same series of corresponding robotic response-actions intervene locally while automated notifications are sent to emergency-personnel, care-takers, and/or family members via both wireless and cellular technologies. A series of sample runs are detailed and described in the present work in order to demonstrate and to argue for the feasibility and functionality of FaDIS as both a Fall-Detection and -Intervention System in particular and as a WSN-based system in general.@en