Robotics in Healthcare

This edited collection is about Robotics in Healthcare. Challenges in the robotics-healthcare tuple are presented through reflections and case-studies, including field experiments.As societies develop, well-being concerns tend to emerge and technologies are pressed to deliver solutions. Robotics and related technologies are currently undergoing an expansion to areas directly related to well-being. Healthcare is probably the most striking example.

The book covers rehabilitation and therapeutics topics, social robotics in the healthcare domain, and emerging technologies. The contents are organized along three principal directions. Rehabilitation forms the initial part, including challenges from the multidisciplinary nature of this domain, and current and prospective examples. A second direction points to the importance of having simulation tools where to train the mobility of an endorobot. The third direction focus on social robots, with a rehabilitation flavor, but also aiming at edutainment activities for children in hospitals.

The authors in this collective have backgrounds ranging from Engineering to Medicine and from Academia to field work and research. The materials in the book result, directly or indirectly, from their professional experiences, and from European and National R&D Projects, in which the authors have been involved.

The book aims at an audience deeply interested in field robotics in Healthcare and with the social concerns about the role of robotics in promoting well-being. The chapters are not overly technical. The challenges, as the case of privacy constraints in social robots, or as connecting a diversity of disciplines, are presented using an accessible language.

Autorentext
João Silva Sequeira is an Assistant Professor at IST, Lisbon, Portugal and a Principal Investigator at ISR/IST, Lisbon, Portugal. He has coordinated several national and international projects related to Robotics and was recently responsible for directing the Monarch consortium where robots were tested in the medical setting.

Zusammenfassung

The work is a collection of contributions resulting from R&D efforts originated from scientific projects involving academia, technological partners, and end-user institutions. The aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of robotics technology applied to Healthcare, and discuss the anticipation of upcoming challenges.

The intersection of Robotics and Medicine includes socially and economically relevant areas, such as rehabilitation, therapy, and healthcare. Innovative usages of current robotics technologies are being somewhat stranded by concerns related to social dynamics. The examples covered in this volume show some of the potential societal benefits robotics can bring and how the robots are being integrated in social environments.

Despite the aforementioned concerns, a fantastic range of possibilities is being opened. The current trend in social robotics adds to technology challenges and requires R&D to think about Robotics as an horizontal discipline, intersecting social and exact sciences. For example, robots that can act as if they have credible personalities (not necessarily similar to humans) living in social scenarios, eventually helping people. Also, robots can move inside the human body to retrieve information that otherwise is difficult to obtain. The decision autonomy of these robots raises a broad range of subjects though the immediate advantages of its use are evident.

The book presents examples of robotics technologies tested in healthcare environments or realistically close to being deployed in the field and discusses the challenges involved. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive overview of Healthcare robotics and points to realistically expectable developments in the near future. Chapter 2 describes the challenges deploying a social robot in the Pediatrics ward of an Oncological hospital for simple edutainment activities. Chapter 3 focuses on Human-Robot Interaction techniques and their role in social robotics. Chapter 4 focus on R&D efforts behind an endoscopic capsule robot. Chapter 5 addresses experiments in rehabilitation with orthotics and walker robots. These examples have deep social and economic relations with the Healthcare field, and, at the same time, are representative of the R&D efforts the robotics community is developing.

Inhalt

Foreword

Acknowledgements

--- Chapter 1 ---

Can a Robot Bring Your Life Back? A Systematic Review for Robotics in Rehabilitation

Esyin Chew, David A. Turner

--- Chapter 2 ---

Smart and Assistive Walker ASBGo . Rehabilitation robotics: a smartwalker to assist ataxic patients

Rui Moreira, Joana Alves, Ana Matias, Cristina Santos

--- Chapter 3 ---

Mechanical sensing for lower limb soft exoskeletons: recent progress and challenges

Massimo Totaro, Christian Di Natali, Irene Bernardeschi, Jesus Ortiz, Lucia Beccai

--- Chapter 4 ---

A Proposed Clinical Evaluation of a Simulation Environment for Magnetically-Driven Active Endoscopic Capsules

Yasmeen Abu-Kheil, Omar Al Trad, Lakmal Seneviratne, Jorge Dias

--- Chapter 5 ---

Social Robots as a complementary therapy in chronic, progressive diseases

Ana Nunes Barata

--- Chapter 6 ---

Developing a Social Robot A Case Study

João Silva Sequeira

Index