A one-of-a-kind robotic cup designed to help people living with cerebral palsy stay hydrated could also be a game-changer for older adults suffering from mobility impairments.

The aptly named RoboCup enables people with limited upper body mobility to stay hydrated without relying on a caregiver for help.

The battery-powered device, which can be mounted on a user’s wheelchair and customised to suit their mobility needs, is activated either by a button or a proximity sensor that brings a straw directly to their mouth.

The user can then take a drink, and once they have finished the straw automatically withdraws.

The cup is the brainchild of engineering students Thomas Kutcher and Rafe Neathery, who came up with the innovative idea after Rice University’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) in Houston, Texas, in the United States, was approached by spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy patient Gary Lynn for help creating an assistive drinking device.

The result is RoboCup, which Thomas and Rafe hope will offer users greater freedom as they won’t need to rely on a caregiver whenever they need a drink.

To this end, the undergraduates have generously made their design available for free to anyone with access to a 3D printer to assemble their own drinking device by downloading instructions from RoboCup’s OEDK website.

Having made it possible for those living with cerebral palsy to drink water autonomously, Thomas and Rafe are now looking at the cup’s wider application – and believe it could prove to be a life-changing piece of technology for those with age-related eating and drinking problems caused by muscle weakness, pain, disease, and neurological conditions that can seriously affect mobility.

Thomas told AgeTech World: “While our client who had the idea for this device has cerebral palsy, the potential use cases spread far and wide. Rafe and I wanted our design to be as generalisable as possible.

“The device is catered to anyone with impaired mobility in a wheelchair, to the extent that they can either push a button or hold their finger in front of a motion sensor, and sip water from a straw.

“Once the device is set up it is very intuitive. It just needs to be set up in a manner where the straw rotates directly to a comfortable location for the user, and the sensor should be placed in a position where the user is able to trigger it.

“Once that criteria is met it should be very easy for the user.”

Rafe Neathery (left) and Thomas Kutcher with the robotic cup. Credit: Brandon Martin/Rice University

Dehydration is dangerous for anyone of any age. But older people are at a greater risk than any other age group.

This is because as people age their bodies don’t demand the same levels of liquid as they did in their younger years. This in turn changes a person’s sense of thirst.

However, the body still needs fluids to function, whether that be helping lubricate joints, regulating body temperature, pumping blood to the muscles, or ensuring the kidneys and urinary tract continue to function properly.

According to the British Nutrition Foundation, dehydration is not only a common cause of hospital admissions in older people but is associated with increased mortality.

For example, a two-fold increase in the mortality of stroke patients has been reported.

Even mild dehydration can be dangerous, affecting tiredness levels and mental performance, potentially leading to low blood pressure, dizziness, weakness, and an increased risk of falls.

In older people, dehydration is often associated with dementia, poorly controlled diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and stroke.

Certain medications can also cause dehydration.

The obvious way to prevent a lack of fluids is to drink more. But this can be easier said than done if you have impaired physical or mental abilities that may confine you to a bed or a wheelchair.

There are several hydration aids on the market aimed at older adults and those with cognitive impairments such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, from water sweets to sports-type bottles and wearable devices that can monitor fluid intake.

But Thomas and Rafe believe RoboCup is in a class of its own.

Rafe said: “RoboCup is primarily focused on allowing those with limited mobility to find increased autonomy in their day-to-day lives. The primary alternative to something like RoboCup would be a water bottle with a long adjustable straw that can be positioned near the user’s mouth.

Thomas Kutcher (left), Gary Lynn and Andrea Lynn at the OEDK. Credit: Brandon Martin/Rice University

“However, the issue with these products is that they intrude on the user’s headspace, and they tend to leak water down their shirt. RoboCup gives people autonomy to have hydration when they want it, and to have control over their own personal space.”

Whilst currently designed for use with a wheelchair, Rafe and Thomas say the RoboCup could be adapted for use in other situations, such as a hospital or care home environment, where a patient is confined to bed.

Thomas and Rafe, who are both 21 and in their final year at Rice University studying bioengineering and mechanical engineering respectively, are currently busy with senior design projects in other fields.

But Thomas said: “As far as assistive devices go our focus is still on RoboCup. As there is such a wide range of potential users, we’re still looking for and exploring ideas to make RoboCup more customisable.

“The main ones are investigating different sensors and locations to fit an individual’s personal ability, adjusting the design to accommodate more viscous fluids, or making it simpler for people to adjust the timing of the motion.”

Making the device as accessible as possible has meant simplifying it. During its development, the duo removed some of the more complicated or expensive parts and found alternatives for custom pieces that required special equipment to be made.

Rafe explained: “It was challenging walking that thin line between simplifying the device and sacrificing functionality or robustness. We wanted to keep it working well while still making it simpler and cheaper.

“Balancing all these considerations was really tricky, but we did get to a point where it’s now a lot easier to 3D print and assemble the device using simple, readily accessible tools.”

The pair worked closely with Gary Lynn during the development stage to optimise the design, which went through several iterations. An initial prototype featured a camelback but was scrapped for the current mounted cup-and-straw version.

Both Gary and his mother Andrea Lynn have expressed their hope that the project will bring attention to the struggles of people living with disabilities who can often strain with something as seemingly easy as drinking water.

Gary has said of Thomas and Rafe’s design: “This cup will give independence to people with limited mobility in their arms. Getting to do this little task by themselves will enhance the confidence of the person using the device.”

To help spread the word about RoboCup, Rafe and Thomas entered the device in the World Cerebral Palsy Day Remarkable Designa-thon competition intended to promote “ideas for a new product or service that could change lives” for people in the cerebral palsy community.

Sadly, RoboCup didn’t win. The prize went to a woman with cerebral palsy who developed an idea for an app that knows who she is, and where she is, and contains a list of her contacts for emergencies, allowing those with speech challenges to effectively communicate their needs to anyone.

Rafe said: “I’m glad the money is going to someone with cerebral palsy who has an important need to be met.”

That hasn’t stopped Rafe and Thomas from getting the word out about RoboCup.

But why did they decide to make their invention freely available rather than taking the entrepreneurial route?

Thomas said their goal had always been to bring it to as many people as possible, especially as they had neither the time nor the investment to commercialise it.

“Helping other people make their own is best,” he commented. “We have open-sourced the part files and code online, and everything else is available to buy from other vendors. After everything is printed, all it takes is a screwdriver and less than an hour to assemble Robocup – the instructions are also online with a few dozen pictures.

“The idea behind all of this effort is to enable others to make Robocup themselves, regardless of access to tools or machinery.

“The low cost, small size, and wide capabilities of a desktop 3D printer are bringing it into more and more households, as well as schools, labs, and maker spaces. There are also several online services that can print and ship 3D-printed parts.”

He added: “We hope the manufacturing process doesn’t prove too burdensome, as Rafe and I worked hard to make it as simple as possible. We do believe that the fully idealised version of this device is purchasable off the shelf to make it as easy as possible for the consumer.”

With graduation looming, Thomas and Rafe admit they are keen to move on to future endeavours. Rafe is going to work for SpaceX post-graduation and Thomas is planning to pursue a PhD in Neural Engineering.

That doesn’t mean if the RoboCup takes off, it might not become a commercial enterprise.

Thomas said: “Like I said before, Rafe and I have wanted to get the word out about RoboCup and move on, as we are graduating. We were potentially hoping that another organisation could take the reins on the RoboCup, or our open-source website could become popular.

“We mostly just wanted to get our work out there through open sourcing, but Rafe and I have more things to discuss in terms of making sure the RoboCup is successful, reaching as many people as possible.

“I personally am somewhat interested in turning it into a commercial enterprise if there is a clear path there, but I need to do more research.”

Older people who have higher levels of triglycerides, a type of fat, may have a lower risk of dementia and a slower cognitive decline over time compared to people who have lower levels, according to new research.

While a link was found, it does not prove that higher levels of triglycerides prevent dementia, the study, published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, said.

Triglycerides are fatty acids and are the most common type of fat in the blood. Triglycerides contribute up to 95% of dietary fats, which are the main energy source of the brain.

“Higher triglyceride levels may be reflective of better overall health and lifestyle behaviors that would protect against dementia,” said study author Zhen Zhou of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

“Our findings suggest that triglyceride levels may serve as a useful predictor for dementia risk and cognitive decline in older populations.”

Researchers used health care data to identify 18,294 people in one cohort with an average age of 75 who did not have a prior diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Participants were followed for an average of six years. During that time, 823 people developed dementia.

Researchers looked at participants’ measurements of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) each year of the study.

Then researchers divided participants into four groups based on fasting triglyceride levels. Of the total group, average triglycerides were 106 milligrams per decilitre (mg/dL).

For adults, a normal or healthy triglyceride level is below 150 mg/dL.

Lower risk

After adjusting for variables including education and cholesterol-lowering treatments, researchers found every doubling of triglyceride levels was associated with an 18% lower risk of developing dementia.

The lowest triglyceride group had levels of less than 62 mg/dL. The second group had levels of 63 to 106 mg/dL. Compared to the lowest group, the second group was 15% less likely to develop dementia.

The third group had levels of 107 to 186 mg/dL. Compared to the lowest group, they were 24% less likely to develop dementia.

The fourth group had levels of 187 mg/dL or higher. Compared to the lowest group, they were 36% less likely to develop dementia.

Of the 1,416 people in the lowest triglyceride group, 82 people, or 6%, developed dementia. Of the 7,449 people in the second group, 358 people, or 5%, developed dementia.

Of the 7,312 people in the third group, 310, or 4%, developed dementia. Of the 2,117 people in the fourth group, 73 people, or 3%, developed dementia.

The researchers also validated their results in another dataset comprised of 68,200 older people from the UK.

Among them, 2,778 people developed dementia over an average time of 12 years. They observed a consistent result which shows a 17% decreased risk of dementia with every doubling of triglycerides levels.

Researchers also found that higher triglycerides were also associated with slower decline in composite cognition, a combined result from tests of global function, psychomotor speed, language and executive function and memory over time.

“Future studies are needed to investigate whether specific components within triglycerides may promote better cognitive function, with the hope of developing new preventive strategies,” Zhou said.

A limitation of the study was researchers looked only at people 65 and older who had no cognitive issues initially, so the findings are not generalisable to other populations.

The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and HCF Research Foundation.

Research has shown that music might be a drug-free way to lower pain perception.

This decreased sensitivity to pain – also known as hypoalgesia – can occur when pain stimuli are disrupted between their point of input and where they are recognised as pain by the conscious mind.

In a new study, researchers in Canada have examined what type of music helps to dampen pain perception.

“In our study, we show that favourite music chosen by study participants has a much larger effect on acute thermal pain reduction than unfamiliar relaxing music” said Darius Valevicius, a doctoral student at the Université de Montréal.

The research was carried out at the Roy Pain Lab at McGill University and published in Frontiers in Pain Research.

“We also found that emotional responses play a very strong role in predicting whether music will have an effect on pain,” Valevicius said.

Everybody hurts

To test which kind of music was most effective for reducing pain, participants received moderately painful thermal stimuli to the inner forearm, resulting in a sensation similar to a hot teacup held against the skin.

These stimuli were paired with music excerpts, each lasting approximately seven minutes.

Compared to control tracks or silence, listening to their favourite music strongly reduced pain intensity and unpleasantness in participants.

Unfamiliar relaxing tracks did not have the same effect.

“In addition, we used scrambled music, which mimics music in every way except its meaningful structure, and can therefore conclude that it is probably not just distraction or the presence of a sound stimulus that is causing the hypoalgesia,” Valevicius explained.

The researchers also examined if musical themes could modulate the pain-decreasing effects of favourite music.

To do that, they interviewed participants about their emotional responses to their favourite music and assigned themes: energising/activating, happy/cheerful, calming/relaxing, and moving/bittersweet.

They discovered that different emotional themes differed in their ability to reduce pain.

“We found that reports of moving or bittersweet emotional experiences seem to result in lower ratings of pain unpleasantness, which was driven by more intense enjoyment of the music and more musical chills,” Valevicius said.

Although it is not yet entirely understood what musical chills are, they seem to indicate a neurophysiological process that is effective at blocking pain signals.

In some people, chills can manifest as a tingling sensation, shivers, or goosebumps.

Something for the pain

The researchers also pointed to limitations of their study, one of which is concerned with how long participants listen to music samples.

For example, listening to relaxing music for longer might have stronger effects than the shorter tracks the participants listened to in this study.

Questions which also need to be addressed in further research include if listening to favourite music is also effective with other, non-thermal pain stimuli, such as mechanical stimulation or chronic pain, the researchers said.

“Especially when it comes to the emotion themes in favourite music like moving/bittersweet, we are exploring new dimensions of the psychology of music listening that have not been well-studied, especially in the context of pain relief.

“As a result, the data we have available is limited, although the preliminary results are fairly strong,” Valevicius concluded.