Studies show dramatic increase in elderly population of Western Europe over the next few decades, which will put pressure on healthcare systems. Measures must be taken to meet these social challenges. Healthcare robots investigated to facilitate independent living for elderly. This paper aims to review recent projects in robotics for healthcare from 2008 to 2021. We provide an overview of the focus in this area and a roadmap for upcoming research. Our study was initiated with a literature search using three digital databases. Searches were performed for articles, including research projects containing the words elderly care, assisted aging, health monitoring, or elderly health, and any word including the root word robot. The resulting 20 recent research projects are described and categorized in this paper. Then, these projects were analyzed using thematic analysis. Our findings can be summarized in common themes: most projects have a strong focus on care robots functionalities; robots are often seen as products in care settings; there is an emphasis on robots as commercial products; and there is some limited focus on the design and ethical aspects of care robots. The paper concludes with five key points representing a roadmap for future research addressing robotic for elderly people.
Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）
Many researchers have identified robotics as a potential solution to the aging population faced by many developed and developing countries. If so, how should we address the cognitive acceptance and ambient control of elderly assistive robots through design? In this paper, we proposed an explorative design of an ambient SuperLimb (Supernumerary Robotic Limb) system that involves a pneumatically-driven robotic cane for at-home motion assistance, an inflatable vest for compliant human-robot interaction, and a depth sensor for ambient intention detection. The proposed system aims at providing acti…
Citard Services Ltd.（Citard服务有限公司）；University of Cyprus（塞浦路斯大学）
SocialRobot is a collaborative European project, which focuses on providing a practical and interactive solution to improve the quality of life of elderly people. Having this in mind, a state of the art robotic mobile platform has been integrated with virtual social care technology to meet the elderly individual needs and requirements, following a human centered approach. In this short paper, we make an overview of SocialRobot, the developed architecture and the human-robot interactive scenarios being prepared and tested in the framework of the project for dissemination and exploitation purpos…
Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Harvard Medical School（哈佛医学院）；Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital（斯波尔丁康复医院）
Age-related loss of mobility and increased risk of falling remain important obstacles toward facilitating aging-in-place. Many elderly people lack the coordination and strength necessary to perform common movements around their home, such as getting out of bed or stepping into a bathtub. The traditional solution has been to install grab bars on various surfaces; however, these are often not placed in optimal locations due to feasibility constraints in room layout. In this paper, we present a mobile robot that provides an older adult with a handle anywhere in space - "handle anywhere". The robo…
Effective methods of preventing falls significantly improve the quality of life of the Elderly. Nowadays, people focus mainly on the proper provision of the apartment with handrails and fall detection systems once they have occurred. The article presents a~system of active detection and classification of the risk of falls in the home space using a~service robot equipped with a~vision sensor. Hazard classification allows for effective performance of tasks assigned to the robot while maintaining a~high level of user safety.
Robots have the potential to be a game changer in healthcare: improving health and well-being, filling care gaps, supporting care givers, and aiding health care workers. However, before robots are able to be widely deployed, it is crucial that both the research and industrial communities work together to establish a strong evidence-base for healthcare robotics, and surmount likely adoption barriers. This article presents a broad contextualization of robots in healthcare by identifying key stakeholders, care settings, and tasks; reviewing recent advances in healthcare robotics; and outlining ma…
Although healthcare is a remarkably sensitive domain of application, and systems that exert direct control over the world can cause harm in a way that humans cannot necessarily correct or oversee, it is still unclear whether and how healthcare robots are currently regulated or should be regulated. Existing regulations are primarily unprepared to provide guidance for such a rapidly evolving field and accommodate devices that rely on machine learning and AI. Moreover, the field of healthcare robotics is very rich and extensive, but it is still very much scattered and unclear in terms of definiti…
Population ageing and pandemics recently demonstrate to cause isolation of elderly people in their houses, generating the need for a reliable assistive figure. Robotic assistants are the new frontier of innovation for domestic welfare, and elderly monitoring is one of the services a robot can handle for collective well-being. Despite these emerging needs, in the actual landscape of robotic assistants there are no platform which successfully combines a reliable mobility in cluttered domestic spaces, with lightweight and offline Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for perception and interacti…
Heriot-Watt University（赫瑞-瓦特大学）；The University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学）
Robotics and automation have the potential to significantly improve quality of life for people with assistive needs and their carers. Adoption of such technologies at this point in time is far from widespread. This paper presents a novel approach to the design of highly customisable robotic concepts, embracing modularity and a co-design process to increase the involvement of end-users in the development life cycle. We discuss this process within the context of an elderly care use case. Using design methodology and additive manufacturing, we outline how key stakeholders can be involved from ini…
Human assistive robotics have the potential to help the elderly and individuals living with disabilities with their Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Robotics researchers present bottom up solutions using various control methods for different types of movements. Health research on the other hand focuses on clinical assessment and rehabilitation leaving arguably important differences between the two domains. In particular, little is known quantitatively on what ADLs humans perform in their everyday environment - at home, work etc. This information can help guide development and prioritization o…
One of the major areas where social robots are finding their place in society is for healthcare-related applications. Yet, very little research has mapped the deployment of socially assistive robots (SARs) in real settings. Using a documentary research method, we were able to trace back 279 experiences of SARs deployments in hospitals, elderly care centers, occupational health centers, private homes, and educational institutions worldwide from 33 different countries, and involving 52 different robot models. We retrieved, analyzed, and classified the functions that SARs develop in these experie…
Bristol Robotics Lab（布里斯托尔机器人实验室）；UWE Bristol（西英格兰大学布里斯托尔分校）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学）
Robot accidents are inevitable. Although rare, they have been happening since assembly-line robots were first introduced in the 1960s. But a new generation of social robots are now becoming commonplace. Often with sophisticated embedded artificial intelligence (AI) social robots might be deployed as care robots to assist elderly or disabled people to live independently. Smart robot toys offer a compelling interactive play experience for children and increasingly capable autonomous vehicles (AVs) the promise of hands-free personal transport and fully autonomous taxis. Unlike industrial robots w…
Social assistance robots in health and elderly care have the potential to support and ease human lives. Given the macrosocial trends of aging and long-lived populations, robotics-based care research mainly focused on helping the elderly live independently. In this paper, we introduce Robot DE NIRO, a research platform that aims to support the supporter (the caregiver) and also offers direct human-robot interaction for the care recipient. Augmented by several sensors, DE NIRO is capable of complex manipulation tasks. It reliably interacts with humans and can autonomously and swiftly navigate th…
University of Padova（帕多瓦大学）；Politecnico di Milano（米兰理工大学）；Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)（意大利理工学院）；École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院）
This paper shows and evaluates a novel approach to integrate a non-invasive Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) with the Robot Operating System (ROS) to mentally drive a telepresence robot. Controlling a mobile device by using human brain signals might improve the quality of life of people suffering from severe physical disabilities or elderly people who cannot move anymore. Thus, the BCI user is able to actively interact with relatives and friends located in different rooms thanks to a video streaming connection to the robot. To facilitate the control of the robot via BCI, we explore new ROS-based…
DRBA: Dynamic Robotic Balance Assistant -- An assist-as-needed gait and balance rehabilitation robot for versatile training
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学机械与航天工程学院）；Guangdong Zhongxin Intelligent Rehabilitation Research Institute（广东众心智能康复研究院）；Guangdong Jianxiang Hospital Group（广东健翔医院集团）
The Future of Intelligent Healthcare: A Systematic Analysis and Discussion on the Integration and Impact of Robots Using Large Language Models for Healthcare
We present an intelligent interactive nightstand mounted on a mobile robot, to aid the elderly in their homes using physical, tactile and visual percepts. We show the integration of three different sensing modalities for controlling the navigation of a robot mounted nightstand within the constrained environment of a general purpose living room housing a single aging individual in need of assistance and monitoring. A camera mounted on the ceiling of the room, gives a top-down view of the obstacles, the person and the nightstand. Pressure sensors mounted beneath the bed-stand of the individual p…
University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学）；University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学）；Bosch（博世）；Wageningen University and Research（瓦赫宁根大学及研究中心）；Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich（苏黎世联邦理工学院计算机科学系）；Microsoft（微软）；University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学）；University of Freiburg（弗莱堡大学）
Robots are increasingly present in modern industry and also in everyday life. Their applications range from health-related situations, for assistance to elderly people or in surgical operations, to automatic and driver-less vehicles (on wheels or flying) or for driving assistance. Recently, an interest towards robotics applied in agriculture and gardening has arisen, with applications to automatic seeding and cropping or to plant disease control, etc. Autonomous lawn mowers are succesful market applications of gardening robotics. In this paper, we present a novel robot that is developed within…
Collaborative human activities are grounded in social and moral norms, which humans consciously and subconsciously use to guide and constrain their decision-making and behavior, thereby strengthening their interactions and preventing emotional and physical harm. This type of norm-based processing is also critical for robots in many human-robot interaction scenarios (e.g., when helping elderly and disabled persons in assisted living facilities, or assisting humans in assembly tasks in factories or even the space station). In this position paper, we will briefly describe how several components i…
Millimeter Wave Radar-based Human Activity Recognition for Healthcare Monitoring Robot
University of Technology Sydney（悉尼科技大学）；University of Nottingham Ningbo China（宁波诺丁汉大学）；The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)（香港科技大学（广州））；University of New South Wales（新南威尔士大学）；RMIT University（皇家墨尔本理工大学）
Cognitive Robotics, TU Delft（代尔夫特理工大学认知机器人）；Honda Research Institute, Europe（本田研究院欧洲）；LIRMM - Université de Montpellier CNRS（蒙彼利埃大学 CNRS LIRMM）；COSMER laboratory EA 7398, Universié de Toulon（土伦大学 COSMER 实验室 EA 7398）；The Hong Kong Polytechnic University（香港理工大学）；University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；University of Michigan（密歇根大学）；Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；Osaka University（大阪大学）；National Institute of AIST（产业技术综合研究所）；Tsinghua University（清华大学）；The University of Hong Kong（香港大学）；Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University（卡内基梅隆大学机器人研究所）
Deformable object manipulation (DOM) is an emerging research problem in robotics. The ability to manipulate deformable objects endows robots with higher autonomy and promises new applications in the industrial, services, and healthcare sectors. However, compared to rigid object manipulation, the manipulation of deformable objects is considerably more complex, and is still an open research problem. Addressing DOM challenges demand breakthroughs in almost all aspects of robotics, namely hardware design, sensing, (deformation) modeling, planning, and control. In this article, we review recent adv…
As telecommunications technology progresses, telehealth frameworks are becoming more widely adopted in the context of long-term care (LTC) for older adults, both in care facilities and in homes. Today, robots could assist healthcare workers when they provide care to elderly patients, who constitute a particularly vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous work on user-centered design of assistive technologies in LTC facilities for seniors has identified positive impacts. The need to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes the benefits of this approach, but a…
The Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；The University of Pennsylvania（宾夕法尼亚大学）；Texas A&M University（德克萨斯农工大学）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）
The recent coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the many challenges faced by the healthcare, public safety, and economic systems when confronted with a surge in patients that require intensive treatment and a population that must be quarantined or shelter in place. The most obvious and pressing challenge is taking care of acutely ill patients while managing spread of infection within the care facility, but this is just the tip of the iceberg if we consider what could be done to prepare in advance for future pandemics. Beyond the obvious need for strengthening medical knowledge and preparedness…
The migration of robots from the laboratory into sensitive home settings as commercially available therapeutic agents represents a significant transition for information privacy and ethical imperatives. We present new privacy paradigms and apply the Fair Information Practices (FIPs) to investigate concerns unique to the placement of therapeutic robots in private home contexts. We then explore the importance and utility of research ethics as operationalized by existing human subjects research frameworks to guide the consideration of therapeutic robotic users -- a step vital to the continued res…
The Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；Verb Surgical Inc.（Verb外科公司）；Ethicon Inc.（爱惜康公司）
Virtual Reality (VR) is rapidly increasing in popularity as a teaching tool. It allows for the creation of a highly immersive, three-dimensional virtual environment intended to simulate real-life environments. With more robots saturating the industry - from manufacturing to healthcare, there is a need to train end-users on how to set up, operate, tear down, and troubleshoot the robot. Even though VR has become widely used in training surgeons on the psychomotor skills associated with operating the robot, little research has been done to see how the benefits of VR could translate to teaching th…
IMT Atlantique（大西洋高等电信学院）；CHRU de Brest（布雷斯特大学医院中心）；European University of Brittany（布列塔尼欧洲大学）
The rising number of the elderly incurs growing concern about healthcare, and in particular rehabilitation healthcare. Assistive technology and assistive robotics in particular may help to improve this process. We develop a robot coach capable of demonstrating rehabilitation exercises to patients, watch a patient carry out the exercises and give him feedback so as to improve his performance and encourage him. The HRI of the system is based on our study with a team of rehabilitation therapists and with the target population.The system relies on human motion analysis. We develop a method for lea…
Human-Centered Shared Autonomy for Motor Planning, Learning, and Control Applications
Translational Neurorobotics Laboratory（转化神经机器人实验室）；Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering（电气、计算机与生物医学工程系）；University of Rhode Island（罗德岛大学）；Human-Centered AI (HCAI) Labs（以人为本的人工智能实验室）
Unfolding the Literature: A Review of Robotic Cloth Manipulation
KTH Royal Institute of Technology（瑞典皇家理工学院）；Carnegie Mellon University（卡内基梅隆大学）；Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, CSIC-UPC（西班牙国家研究委员会-加泰罗尼亚理工大学机器人与工业自动化研究所）；University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学）
Achieving Dexterous Bidirectional Interaction in Uncertain Conditions for Medical Robotics
Institute for Perception, Action, and Behaviour, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学信息学院感知、行动与行为研究所）；University College London（伦敦大学学院）；University of Sussex（萨塞克斯大学）；Inria（法国国家信息与自动化研究所）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Université de Lorraine（洛林大学）
In recent years, many works have investigated the feasibility of conversational robots for performing specific tasks, such as healthcare and interview. Along with this development comes a practical issue: how should we synthesize robotic voices to meet the needs of different situations? In this paper, we discuss this issue from three perspectives: 1) the difficulties of synthesizing non-verbal and interaction-oriented speech signals, particularly backchannels; 2) the scenario classification for robotic voice synthesis; 3) the ethical issues regarding the design of robot voice for its emotion a…
Engagement in Human-Machine Interaction is the process by which entities participating in the interaction establish, maintain, and end their perceived connection. It is essential to monitor the engagement state of patients in various AI-based interactive healthcare paradigms. This includes medical conditions that alter social behavior such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Engagement is a multi-faceted construct which is composed of behavioral, emotional, and mental components. Previous research has neglected this multi-faceted nature of enga…
Autonomous Robotic Ultrasound System for Liver Follow-up Diagnosis: Pilot Phantom Study
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University（哈佛大学工程与应用科学学院）；Center for Advanced Medical Computing and Analysis (CAMCA), Massachusetts General Hospital（麻省总医院高级医学计算与分析中心）；Harvard Medical School（哈佛医学院）
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)（意大利理工学院）；Politecnico di Bari（巴里理工大学）；University of Southern Denmark（南丹麦大学）
Soft robotics technology can aid in achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement through development of autonomous, environmentally responsible machines powered by renewable energy. By utilizing soft robotics, we can mitigate the detrimental effects of climate change on human society and the natural world through fostering adaptation, restoration, and remediation. Moreover, the implementation of soft robotics can lead to groundbreaking discoveries in material science, biology, control systems, energy efficiency, and sustainable manufacturing pro…
