App and online system for efficient booking and scheduling of stair-climbing services

Abstract

This thesis addresses a problem faced by people with mobility impairment in urban settings, namely those who reside in multi-story apartments without elevators but are unable to navigate the staircase without assistance. In some cities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) offer stair-climbing service by sending staff with specialized stair-climbing wheelchairs to help the users with mobility-impairment. To begin, the operation and scheduling of one such NGO is examined. A detailed description of the planning issues of the operation is also provided. This is a single-period, home health care (HHC) routing and scheduling problem. In this thesis, three major outcomes are developed: (1) an online system with relevant user interface (UI), application programming interface (API) and database to be deployed into the partner NGO; (2) a framework and a heuristic scheduling algorithm that improves the scheduling of stair climbing service and allows caregivers to book and confirm service without the NGO staff’s manual involvement; and (3) a business model to sustain the operation and maintenance of the online system. The thesis is the first ever attempt in designing of a workable online system for stair climbing service; starting a promising application of an automatic scheduling algorithm on it; and devising a business model to sustain it. This serves as a good case study for demonstrating the possibility of integrating design, technology and business in stair climbing service and stimulate future research and business development in digitization of HHC services in wider areas.

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology