517 research outputs found
Healthcare Robotics
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 major challenges and
opportunities to their adoption.Comment: 8 pages, Communications of the ACM, 201
Therapeutic and educational objectives in robot assisted play for children with autism
“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.” DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326251This article is a methodological paper that describes the therapeutic and educational objectives that were identified during the design process of a robot aimed at robot assisted play. The work described in this paper is part of the IROMEC project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that recognizes the important role of play in child development and targets children who are prevented from or inhibited in playing. The project investigates the role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education for children with special needs. This paper specifically addresses the therapeutic and educational objectives related to children with autism. In recent years, robots have already been used to teach basic social interaction skills to children with autism. The added value of the IROMEC robot is that play scenarios have been developed taking children's specific strengths and needs into consideration and covering a wide range of objectives in children's development areas (sensory, communicational and interaction, motor, cognitive and social and emotional). The paper describes children's developmental areas and illustrates how different experiences and interactions with the IROMEC robot are designed to target objectives in these areas
Therapeutic and educational objectives in robot assisted play for children with autism
“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.” DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326251This article is a methodological paper that describes the therapeutic and educational objectives that were identified during the design process of a robot aimed at robot assisted play. The work described in this paper is part of the IROMEC project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that recognizes the important role of play in child development and targets children who are prevented from or inhibited in playing. The project investigates the role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education for children with special needs. This paper specifically addresses the therapeutic and educational objectives related to children with autism. In recent years, robots have already been used to teach basic social interaction skills to children with autism. The added value of the IROMEC robot is that play scenarios have been developed taking children's specific strengths and needs into consideration and covering a wide range of objectives in children's development areas (sensory, communicational and interaction, motor, cognitive and social and emotional). The paper describes children's developmental areas and illustrates how different experiences and interactions with the IROMEC robot are designed to target objectives in these areas.Final Published versio
Tactile Interactions with a Humanoid Robot : Novel Play Scenario Implementations with Children with Autism
Acknowledgments: This work has been partially supported by the European Commission under contract number FP7-231500-ROBOSKIN. Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.The work presented in this paper was part of our investigation in the ROBOSKIN project. The project has developed new robot capabilities based on the tactile feedback provided by novel robotic skin, with the aim to provide cognitive mechanisms to improve human-robot interaction capabilities. This article presents two novel tactile play scenarios developed for robot-assisted play for children with autism. The play scenarios were developed against specific educational and therapeutic objectives that were discussed with teachers and therapists. These objectives were classified with reference to the ICF-CY, the International Classification of Functioning – version for Children and Youth. The article presents a detailed description of the play scenarios, and case study examples of their implementation in HRI studies with children with autism and the humanoid robot KASPAR.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio
Socially assistive robotics for post-stroke rehabilitation
BACKGROUND: Although there is a great deal of success in rehabilitative robotics applied to patient recovery post stroke, most of the research to date has dealt with providing physical assistance. However, new rehabilitation studies support the theory that not all therapy need be hands-on. We describe a new area, called socially assistive robotics, that focuses on non-contact patient/user assistance. We demonstrate the approach with an implemented and tested post-stroke recovery robot and discuss its potential for effectiveness. RESULTS: We describe a pilot study involving an autonomous assistive mobile robot that aids stroke patient rehabilitation by providing monitoring, encouragement, and reminders. The robot navigates autonomously, monitors the patient's arm activity, and helps the patient remember to follow a rehabilitation program. We also show preliminary results from a follow-up study that focused on the role of robot physical embodiment in a rehabilitation context. CONCLUSION: We outline and discuss future experimental designs and factors toward the development of effective socially assistive post-stroke rehabilitation robots
A Review on Current and Potential Applications of Robotics In Mental Health Care
Robotics technology is most commonly associated with robots, that are physically embodied systems capable of causing physical change in the world. Robots execute this transformation via effectors that either move the robot itself (locomotion) or move items in the environment (manipulation), and they frequently make judgments based on data from sensors. Robot autonomy can range from totally teleoperated to fully autonomous (the robot is entirely independent). The word robotics technology also encompasses related technologies, such as sensor systems, data processing algorithms, and so forth. While in recent years this has evolved outward, with an emphasis on difficulties connected to dealing with actual people in the real world. This transition has been referred to as human-centered robotics in the literature, and a developing topic in the last decade focused on difficulties in this arena is known as human robot interaction (HRI). The application of robotics technology in mental health treatment is still in its early stages, but it offers a potentially beneficial tool in the professional's arsenal
Social Robots to enhance therapy and interaction for children: From the design to the implementation "in the wild"
En les últimes dues dècades els robots socials s'han convertit en un camp emergent en el qual encara hi ha molt per fer. Aquest camp requereix coneixements en mecà nica, control, intel·ligència artificial, sistemes, etc., però també en psicologia, disseny, ètica, etc. El nostre grup de recerca de perfil interdisciplinari ha estat treballant en el disseny de robots socials en diferents aplicacions per a nens amb necessitats especials.
L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi Ă©s investigar diferents escenaris en terĂ pia o educaciĂł on els robots socials podrien ser una eina Ăştil per als nens. Es van realitzar 4 estudis amb diferents propòsits: (1) dissenyar activitats amb robòtica de LEGO per avaluar el comportament social dels nens amb trastorn de l'espectre autista (TEA) (entre companys i amb adults) i analitzar la seva efectivitat, (2) dissenyar un robot social per recuperar les funcionalitats mĂ©s afectades a causa de traumatismes cranioencefĂ lics (TCE) en nens i veure l'eficĂ cia del tractament, (3) proporcionar un robot mascota per alleujar els sentiments d'ansietat, solitud i estrès en nens hospitalitzats, i (4) comprovar com un robot amb comportament social i amb una personalitzaciĂł versus robots sense aquestes caracterĂstiques mostra diferències en termes d'interacciĂł amb nens i, per tant, pot ajudar en l'efectivitat de diferents tractaments com hem esmentat anteriorment.
Els resultats van revelar diferents resultats depenent de l'aplicaciĂł: (1) efectivitat amb la plataforma robòtica social que vam dissenyar en el tractament neuropsicològic per a aquells nens afectats per TCE, (2) eficĂ cia amb les activitats de robòtica de LEGO dissenyades per un grup de terapeutes en termes de millora d'habilitats socials (3) un efecte positiu entre els mediadors i facilitadors de la interacciĂł i les relacions entre els diferents agents involucrats en el procĂ©s de la cura: pacients hospitalitzats, familiars, voluntaris i personal clĂnic, i (4) una interacciĂł diferent, en termes de temps, entre els dos grups durant perĂode de dues setmanes.En las Ăşltimas dos dĂ©cadas los robots sociales se han convertido en un campo emergente en el que todavĂa hay mucho por hacer. Este campo requiere conocimientos en mecánica, control, inteligencia artificial, sistemas, etc., pero tambiĂ©n en psicologĂa, diseño, Ă©tica, etc. Nuestro grupo de investigaciĂłn de perfil interdisciplinar ha estado trabajando en el diseño de robots sociales en diferentes aplicaciones para niños con necesidades especiales.
El objetivo de esta tesis es investigar diferentes escenarios en terapia o educaciĂłn donde los robots sociales podrĂan ser una herramienta Ăştil para los niños. Se realizaron 4 estudios con diferentes propĂłsitos: (1) diseñar actividades con robĂłtica de LEGO para evaluar el comportamiento social de los niños con trastorno del espectro autista (TEA) (entre compañeros y con adultos) y analizar su efectividad, (2) diseñar un robot social para recuperar las funcionalidades más afectadas a causa de traumatismos craneoencefálicos (TCE) en niños y ver la eficacia del tratamiento, (3) proporcionar un robot mascota para aliviar los sentimientos de ansiedad, soledad y estrĂ©s en niños hospitalizados, y (4) comprobar como un robot con comportamiento social y con una personalizaciĂłn versus robots sin esas caracterĂsticas muestra diferencias en tĂ©rminos de interacciĂłn con niños y, por tanto, puede ayudar en la efectividad de diferentes tratamientos como mencionamos anteriormente.
Los resultados revelaron diferentes resultados dependiendo de la aplicaciĂłn: (1) efectividad con la plataforma robĂłtica social que diseñamos en el tratamiento neuropsicolĂłgico para aquellos niños afectadas por TCE, (2) eficacia con las actividades de robĂłtica de LEGO diseñadas por un grupo de terapeutas en tĂ©rminos de mejora de habilidades sociales (3) un efecto positivo entre los mediadores y facilitadores de la interacciĂłn y las relaciones entre los diferentes agentes involucrados en el proceso del cuidado: pacientes hospitalizados, familiares, voluntarios y personal clĂnico, y (4) una interacciĂłn diferente, en tĂ©rminos de tiempo, entre ambos grupos en el promedio de un perĂodo de dos semanas.Over the past two decades social robots have become an emerging field where there are many things still to work on. This field not only requires knowledge in mechanics, control, artificial intelligence, systems, etc., but also in psychology, design, ethics, etc. Our multidisciplinary research group has been working on designing social robotic platforms in different applications for children with special needs.
The aim of this thesis is to investigate different scenarios in therapy or education where social robots could be a useful tool for children. We ran 4 studies with different purposes: (1) to design activities with LEGO robotics to assess children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) social behaviour (between peers and with adults) and to analyze the effectiveness, (2) to design a social robotic platform to recover the functionalities most affected by traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in children and see the effectiveness of the treatment, (3) to provide a pet robot to alleviate feelings of anxiety, loneliness and stress of long-term children inpatient and their bystanders, and (4) to verify how a robot with social behaviour and personalization verses those robots without, shows differences in terms of interaction with children and thus, helps the effectiveness of different treatments as we mention above.
The results revealed different outcomes depending on the application: (1) effectiveness with the social robotic platform that we designed in neuropsychological treatment in those areas affected by TBI, (2) effectiveness with the LEGO robotics activities designed by a group of therapists in terms of improvement of the social skills and engagement, (3) a positive effect within mediators and facilitators of interaction and relationships between the different agents involved in the caring process: in-patients, relatives, volunteers and clinical staff (4) slight evidence towards a different interaction, in terms of time, between both groups in the average of a two-week period
Mobile robot-based gait training after total hip arthroplasty (THA) improves walking in biomechanical gait analysis
There are multiple attempts to decrease costs in the healthcare system while maintaining a high treatment quality. Digital therapies receive increasing attention in clinical practice, mainly relating to home-based exercises supported by mobile devices, eventually in combination with wearable sensors. The aim of this study was to determine if patients following total hip arthroplasty (THA) could benefit from gait training on crutches conducted by a mobile robot in a clinical setting. Method: This clinical trial was conducted with 30 patients following total hip arthroplasty. Fifteen patients received the conventional physiotherapy program in the clinic (including 5 min of gait training supported by a physiotherapist). The intervention group of 15 patients passed the same standard physiotherapy program, but the 5-min gait training supported by a physiotherapist was replaced by 2 Ă— 5 min of gait training conducted by the robot. Length of stay of the patients was set to five days. Biomechanical gait parameters of the patients were assessed pre-surgery and upon patient discharge. Results: While before surgery no significant difference in gait parameters was existent, patients from the intervention group showed a significant higher absolute walking speed (0.83 vs. 0.65 m/s, p = 0.029), higher relative walking speed (0.2 vs. 0.16 m/s, p = 0.043) or shorter relative cycle time (3.35 vs. 3.68 s, p = 0.041) than the patients from the control group. Conclusion: The significant higher walking speed of patients indicates that such robot-based gait training on crutches may shorten length of stay (LOS) in acute clinics. However, the number of patients involved was rather small, thus calling for further studies
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