ISU Homepage

The project "ISU - Intelligent Sanitary Unit for Disabled and Elderly People" aimed at increasing autonomy of older people and bedridden persons, supporting care givers and restoring dignity and self-esteem in the most sensitive area of personal hygiene. The project developed a mobile system of sanitary components for improving hygiene, care-provision and quality of life consisting of a supply and disposal unit and

• a bed-shower for washing a bedridden or immobile person without spilling water to the environment and
• a mobile bed-side toilet which offers WC flushing and odour-free vacuum disposal of faecal-matter which usually are offered only from stationary assistive toilets.

The project consortium consisted of four SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) with complementary products to generate an integrated solution and two RTD organisations with experience in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) and end-user participation. The university partner also provided ethical guidance for working in this highly sensitive area of personal hygiene.

Project partners

• Vienna University of Technology, Institute 'integrated study' - TUW (Austria)
• CEIT RALTEC gGmbH - CRT (Austria)
• Santis Kft - SAN (Hungary)
• Blechtechnik Eisenerz GmbH - BTE (Austria)
• VEBRA - VEB (Germany)
• J. Honoré a/s - JHA (Denmark)

The project ISU received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme managed by REA-Research Executive Agency under Grant Agreement No 262286. The project started on November 1^st, 2010 with a duration of 30 months.