Robotics in Healthcare: Field Examples and Challenges (Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 1170)

Description

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. Preface Acknowledgments Contents 1: Can a Robot Bring Your Life Back? A Systematic Review for Robotics in Rehabilitation 1.1 Introduction and Research Methodology 1.1.1 Background and Aims 1.1.2 Research Methodology 1.2 Bibliometric Investigation for “Robot” and “Rehabilitation” 1.2.1 The Historical and International Profiles of Publications 1.2.2 Robot and Rehabilitation in Social Science Research 1.2.3 Taxonomy for Robotics in Healthcare and Robotics Technologies in Rehabilitation 1.3 Can Robots Bring Your Life Back? The Controversial and Recommendations 1.4 Concluding Remarks Appendices Appendix A: Disciplines that Lead in Robotics in Rehabilitation (Figs. 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, 1.14, 1.15, 1.16, 1.17 and 1.18) Appendix B: Sample of Inclusion Screening Using JBI Appendix C: Summary of Included Articles References 2: Smart and Assistive Walker – ASBGo: Rehabilitation Robotics: A Smart–Walker to Assist Ataxic Patients 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Related Work 2.2.1 Physical Support 2.2.2 Manual Guidance 2.2.3 Autonomous & Shared-Control Guidance 2.2.4 User’s State Monitoring and Security 2.3 ASBGo∗ Smart Walker 2.3.1 System Overview 2.3.2 Mechanical Frame and Main Components 2.3.2.1 Low Section 2.3.2.2 Middle Section 2.3.2.3 Top Section 2.3.3 Sensors and Actuators 2.3.4 Functionalities 2.3.4.1 Maneuverability 2.3.4.2 Clinical Evaluation 2.3.4.3 Biofeedback 2.3.4.4 Multitasking Game 2.4 Results and Discussion 2.4.1 Safety 2.4.2 Biofeedback 2.4.3 Clinical Evaluation and Hospital Trials 2.5 Conclusions References 3: Mechanical Sensing for Lower Limb Soft Exoskeletons: Recent Progress and Challenges 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Rigid Exoskeletons 3.3 Soft Exoskeletons 3.3.1 XoSoft 3.4 Sensing Solutions in Soft Exoskeletons 3.4.1 Piezoresistive Strain Sensors 3.4.2 Capacitive Strain Sensors 3.4.3 Strain Sensors Based on Other Transduction Principles 3.5 Example of Soft Sensing for Lower Limb Soft Exoskeletons 3.5.1 Knee and Ankle Modules 3.6 Conclusions References 4: A Proposed Clinical Evaluation of a Simulation Environment for Magnetically-Driven Active Endoscopic Capsules 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Materials & Methods 4.2.1 Vision-Based Tele-Operation 4.2.2 Vision/Haptic-Based Navigation Without Head Control 4.2.3 Vision/Haptic-Based Navigation with Head Control 4.3 Evaluation Procedure 4.3.1 Test Setup 4.3.2 Procedure 4.4 Discussion References 5: Social Robots as a Complementary Therapy in Chronic, Progressive Diseases 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Theoretical Framework 5.3 Goal 5.4 Methods 5.5 Results 5.6 PARO® in the Homecare Setting (Trial) 5.7 Discussion 5.8 Conclusion References 6: Developing a Social Robot – A Case Study 6.1 Introduction 6.1.1 What Is a Social Robot After All? 6.2 Environments 6.3 Related Work 6.4 Design of a Social Robot 6.4.1 Basis Functionalities 6.4.2 People Detection from RFID 6.4.3 People Detection from Laser Range Finder 6.4.4 Verbal and Non-verbal Utterances 6.4.5 In Search of a Synthetic Personality 6.5 Setting Up a Simple Social Experiment 6.5.1 Behaviors for Entertainment and Social Integration 6.5.2 Assessment, Errors and Features 6.6 Ethics Concerns in Social Robotics 6.7 Conclusions and Future Trends References Index