Befragung der Patienten zur Qualität der Krankenhausverpflegung und zu ihrer Einstellung zu Biokost sowie der Kliniken zum Einsatz von Biokost in ihrer Speiseversorgung

Um die Meinung von Krankenhauspatienten zur Qualität ihrer Verpflegung und zu ihrer Einstellung zu Bio-Lebensmitteln zu ermitteln, wurde vom Freiburger Institut für Umweltmedizin und Krankenhausyhgiene eine Umfrage durchgeführt (gefördert durch das Bundesprogramm Ökologischer Landbau). An der Umfrage beteiligten sich 1.500 Patientinnen und Patienten von 25 Akut- und Rehakliniken aus der Umgebung des Universitätsklinikums Freiburg. Auch die Verwaltungen konnten Ihre Meinung äußern. Im Ergebnis sind die befragten Patienten mit ihrer Essensqualität zufrieden, sie würden aber biologisch erzeugte Lebensmittel durchaus begrüßen, insbesondere da sie diese für gesünder halten als konventionell erzeugte Ware. Auch bezüglich Geschmack, Qualität und Umweltfreundlichkeit wurde die Biokost ausgesprochen positiv bewertet. Von Patienten bevorzugte Bio-Komponenten sind Gemüse, Obst und Salat. Generell wird auf eine gute Krankenverpflegung von Seiten der Patienten ein sehr hoher Wert gelegt. Weitgehende Zustimmung fand auch die Aussage, dass die Ernährungsqualität mit Einfluss auf den Behandlungserfolg hat. Allerdings stehen die Klinikverwaltungen finanziell sehr unter Druck. Der durchschnittliche Lebensmitteleinsatz für eine komplette Patienten-Tagesverpflegung lag bei 4,90 Euro und für Mehrausgaben wird von Seiten der Küchen kaum Spielraum gesehen. Die Umfrage zeigt aber, dass Kliniken, die in ihrer Küche trotzdem eine konsequente Strategie für eine sehr gute Verpflegungsqualität, einschließlich der Verwendung von Lebensmitteln in Bioqualität, verfolgen, von ihren Patienten mit einer hohen Zufriedenheit messbar honoriert werden

Terrain-Aware Communication Coverage Prediction for Cooperative Networked Robots in Unstructured Environments

Networked robots will play an important role in lunar exploration. Communication is key to enable cooperation among robots for information sharing, and to remotely control robots with lower degree of autonomy from a lander or habitat. Operators and scientists must be able to make sound decisions on communication availability before or during sending robots to regions of interest for exploration. In this work we have a closer look at the communication coverage prediction for lunar exploration. We present an interdisciplinary and modular framework, which exploits terrain information to predict the data rate for exploring robots. Additionally, we create intuitively usable coverage maps for operators and scientists, and show how connectivity can be improved in unstructured environments by using a relay rover. This paper provides an overview of this framework, details on individual framework components, and simulation results for two exemplary exploration scenarios

Terrain-Aware Communication Coverage Prediction for Cooperative Networked Robots in Unstructured Environments

Networked robots will play an important role in lunar exploration. Communication is key to enable cooperation among robots for information sharing, and to remotely control robots with lower degree of autonomy from a lander or habitat. Operators and scientists must be able to make sound decisions on communication availability before or during sending robots to regions of interest for exploration. In this work we have a closer look at the communication coverage prediction for lunar exploration. We present an interdisciplinary and modular framework, which exploits terrain information to predict the data rate for exploring robots. Additionally, we create intuitively usable coverage maps for operators and scientists, and show how connectivity can be improved in unstructured environments by using a relay rover. This paper provides an overview of this framework, details on individual framework components, and simulation results for two exemplary exploration scenarios

Interactive visuo-motor therapy system for stroke rehabilitation

We present a virtual reality (VR)-based motor neurorehabilitation system for stroke patients with upper limb paresis. It is based on two hypotheses: (1) observed actions correlated with self-generated or intended actions engage cortical motor observation, planning and execution areas ("mirror neurons”); (2) activation in damaged parts of motor cortex can be enhanced by viewing mirrored movements of non-paretic limbs. We postulate that our approach, applied during the acute post-stroke phase, facilitates motor re-learning and improves functional recovery. The patient controls a first-person view of virtual arms in tasks varying from simple (hitting objects) to complex (grasping and moving objects). The therapist adjusts weighting factors in the non-paretic limb to move the paretic virtual limb, thereby stimulating the mirror neuron system and optimizing patient motivation through graded task success. We present the system's neuroscientific background, technical details and preliminary result

Interactive visuo-motor therapy system for stroke rehabilitation

We present a virtual reality (VR)-based motor neurorehabilitation system for stroke patients with upper limb paresis. It is based on two hypotheses: (1) observed actions correlated with self-generated or intended actions engage cortical motor observation, planning and execution areas ("mirror neurons"); (2) activation in damaged parts of motor cortex can be enhanced by viewing mirrored movements of non-paretic limbs. We postulate that our approach, applied during the acute post-stroke phase, facilitates motor re-learning and improves functional recovery. The patient controls a first-person view of virtual arms in tasks varying from simple (hitting objects) to complex (grasping and moving objects). The therapist adjusts weighting factors in the non-paretic limb to move the paretic virtual limb, thereby stimulating the mirror neuron system and optimizing patient motivation through graded task success. We present the system's neuroscientific background, technical details and preliminary results.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enabling Distributed Low Radio Frequency Arrays - Results of an Analog Campaign on Mt. Etna

Measurement of the red-shifted 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen, and thus observing The Dark Ages is expected to be the holy grail of 21-cm Cosmology. A Radio-telescope to observe low radio frequency signals is needed, but radio interference on Earth and Earth's ionosphere blocking these signals are limiting science investigations in this field. Hence, such a radio-telescope composed of dozens to hundreds of antennas shall be deployed on the lunar far side. Such arrays are shielded from interference from Earth and Earth's ionosphere blocking very low radio frequencies is not present. Within the Helmholtz Future Topic Project Autonomous Robotic Networks to Help Modern Societies (ARCHES) we developed necessary technologies for autonomous robotic deployment of antenna elements, modular payload box design, and robust radio-localization to enable such distributed low-frequency arrays. In particular the antennas’ positions must be determined accurately, such that the array can be operated as phased array. Our developments lead to the execution of an analog-demonstration on the volcano Mt. Etna, Sicily, Italy, in June and July 2022 over the course of four weeks. We successfully demonstrated the autonomous robotic deployment of antenna elements and our decentralized real-time radio-localization system to obtain the antenna element positions. Additionally, we showed a proof-of-concept operation of the phased array comprising four antenna elements: estimating the signal direction of arrival of a radio-beacon with unknown position, and the beamforming capabilities itself, for a carrier frequency of 20 MHz. In this paper, we give insights into our developed technologies and the analog-demonstration on the volcano Mt. Etna, Sicily, Italy. We show results of the successfully executed mission and give an outlook how our developed technologies can be further used for lunar exploration

Robust place recognition with Gaussian Process Gradient Maps for teams of robotic explorers in challenging lunar environments

Teams of mobile robots will play a key role towards future planetary exploration missions. In fact, plans for upcoming lunar exploration, and other extraterrestrial bodies, foresee an extensive usage of robots for the purposes of in-situ analysis, building infrastructure and realizing maps of the environment for its exploitation. To enable prolonged robotic autonomy, however, it is critical for the robotic agents to be able to robustly localize themselves during their motion and, concurrently, to produce maps of the environment. To this end, visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) techniques have been developed during the years and found successful application in several terrestrial fields, such as autonomous driving, automated construction and agricultural robotics. To this day, autonomous navigation has been demonstrated in various robotic missions to Mars, e.g., from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Missions, to NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity) and the current Mars2020 Perseverance, thanks to the implementation of Visual Odometry, using cameras to robustly estimate the rover's ego-motion. While VO techniques enable the traversal of large distances from one scientific target to the other, future operations, e.g., for building or maintenance of infrastructure, will require robotic agents to repeatedly visit the same environment. In this case, the ability to re-localize themselves with respect to previously visited places, and therefore the ability to create consistent maps of the environment, is paramount to achieve localization accuracies, that are far above what is achievable from global localization approaches. The planetary environment, however, poses significant challenges to this goal, due to extreme lighting conditions, severe visual aliasing and a lack of uniquely identifiable natural "features". For this reason, we developed an approach for re-localization and place recognition, that relies on Gaussian Processes, to efficiently represent portions of the local terrain elevation, named "GPGMaps" (Gaussian Process Gradient Maps), and to use its gradient in conjunction with traditional visual matching techniques. In this paper, we demonstrate, analyze and report the performances of our SLAM approach, based on GPGMaps, during the 2022 ARCHES (Autonomous Robotic Networks to Help Modern Societies) mission, that took place on the volcanic ash slopes of Mt. Etna, Sicily, a designated planetary analogous environment. The proposed SLAM system has been deployed for real-time usage on a robotic team that includes the LRU (Lightweight Rover Unit), a planetary-like rover with high autonomy, perceptual and locomotion capabilities, to demonstrate enabling technologies for future lunar applications

Design, Execution, and Postmortem Analysis of Prolonged Autonomous Robot Operations

In the context of space missions and terrestrial applications, both mission goals and task implementations for autonomous robots are becoming increasingly complex. Thus, the challenge of monitoring the achievement of task objectives and checking the correctness of their implementation is becoming more and more difficult. To tackle these problems, we propose an unified architecture that supports different stakeholders during the different phases of the deployment: 1) the design phase; 2) the runtime phase; 3) the post-mortem analysis phase. Furthermore, we implement this architecture by enhancing our task programming framework RAFCON with powerful logging, debugging and profiling capabilities. We demonstrate the efficiency of our approach in the context of the ROBEX mission, during which the DLR Lightweight Rover Unit autonomously deployed several seismometers in an unknown rough terrain on Mt. Etna, Sicily. The analysis results for a state machine consisting of more than 1500 states and more than 1900 transitions are presented. Finally, we give a comparison between our framework and related software tools

The LRU Rover for Autonomous Planetary Exploration and its Success in the SpaceBotCamp Challenge

The task of planetary exploration poses many challenges for a robot system, from weight and size constraints to sensors and actuators suitable for extraterrestrial environment conditions. As there is a significant communication delay to other planets, the efficient operation of a robot system requires a high level of autonomy. In this work, we present the Light Weight Rover Unit (LRU), a small and agile rover prototype that we designed for the challenges of planetary exploration. Its locomotion system with individually steered wheels allows for high maneuverability in rough terrain and the application of stereo cameras as its main sensor ensures the applicability to space missions. We implemented software components for self-localization in GPS-denied environments, environment mapping, object search and localization and for the autonomous pickup and assembly of objects with its arm. Additional high-level mission control components facilitate both autonomous behavior and remote monitoring of the system state over a delayed communication link. We successfully demonstrated the autonomous capabilities of our LRU at the SpaceBotCamp challenge, a national robotics contest with focus on autonomous planetary exploration. A robot had to autonomously explore a moon-like rough-terrain environment, locate and collect two objects and assemble them after transport to a third object - which the LRU did on its first try, in half of the time and fully autonomous

Cost analysis of two anaesthetic machines: "Primus®" and "Zeus®"

Background Two anaesthetic machines, the "Primus®" and the "Zeus®" (Draeger AG, Lübeck, Germany), were subjected to a cost analysis by evaluating the various expenses that go into using each machine. Methods These expenses included the acquisition, maintenance, training and device-specific accessory costs. In addition, oxygen, medical air and volatile anaesthetic consumption were determined for each machine. Results Anaesthesia duration was 278 ± 140 and 208 ± 112 minutes in the Primus® and the Zeus®, respectively. The purchase cost was €3.28 and €4.58 per hour of operation in the Primus® and the Zeus®, respectively. The maintenance cost was €0.90 and €1.20 per hour of operation in the Primus® and the Zeus®, respectively. We found that the O2 cost was €0.015 ± 0.013 and €0.056 ± 0.121 per hour of operation in the Primus® and the Zeus®, respectively. The medical air cost was €0.005 ± 0.003 and €0.016 ± 0.027 per hour of operation in the Primus® and the Zeus®, respectively. The volatile anaesthetic cost was €2.40 ± 2.40 and €4.80 ± 4.80 per hour of operation in the Primus® and the Zeus®, respectively. Conclusion This study showed that the "Zeus®" generates a higher cost per hour of operation compared to the "Primus®"