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

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 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