I-Corps: Adaptive Robotic Nursing Assistants for Physical Healthcare Delivery

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发机器人技术，帮助医护人员在医院和疗养院环境中为患者提供更好、更高效的服务。美国劳工统计局表示，美国有数百万注册护士，这使他们成为提供医疗保健的最大劳动力。拟议的技术具有增加护理劳动力的潜力，并有助于弥补医院、长期护理设施和疗养院的人员短缺。自适应机器人护理助理可以减少护士接触感染性因素，减少肌肉骨骼损伤，并通过释放用于取物品、重复测量生命体征和搬运的时间来提高工作满意度。可以与电子健康记录通信以记录完成的任务的机器人可能会节省护士花费在文书工作上的时间，从而产生更大的影响。随着护理劳动力的预计短缺，护士的工作量预计将增加，机器人护理助理有可能处理一些物理和行政护理任务。患者和医院可以通过自动化在护理质量、预防跌倒和更快的服务方面获得好处。这个i-Corps项目基于开发自适应机器人护理助理，用于医院环境中的物理和管理任务。这项技术包括一个带有全方位底座的移动机械手，一个6自由度(DOF)机械臂，以及帮助护理场景的传感器，如与患者坐着和走路。传感器包括非接触式接近皮肤和接触式触觉皮肤，使机器人能够在繁忙的医疗环境中安全操作，同时与护士和患者进行身体互动。该技术还结合了人机界面(HMI)，允许用户以直观的方式与机器人交互，这种方式可能会根据个人的喜好而定制。该技术的神经自适应学习控制技术可以在人-机器人物理交互过程中适应每个用户的行为，确保高质量的交互、可编程的自适应HMI行为和在操作不确定情况下的稳健性能。使用这项技术，机器人可以在保持医护人员参与决策循环的同时，在环境中导航、取回物体并自动执行平凡的护理任务。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of robotic technologies to assist healthcare workers deliver better and more efficient services to patients in hospitals and nursing home environments. The Bureau of Labor statistics indicates that there are millions of registered nurses in the United States, which makes them the largest workforce providing healthcare. The proposed technology has the potential to augment the nursing workforce and help offset personnel shortages in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and nursing homes. Adaptive robotic nursing assistants may reduce nurses’ exposure to infectious agents, reduce musculoskeletal injuries, and increase job satisfaction by freeing up time spent on item fetching, repetitive measurements of vital signs, and lifting. A robot that can communicate with the electronic health records to document completed tasks may have greater impact by saving nurses’ time devoted to paperwork. With the predicted shortage in nursing workforce, nurse workloads are expected to increase, and robot nursing assistants have the potential to handle some of the physical and administrative nursing tasks. Patients and hospitals may gain in terms of quality of care, prevention of falls, and faster service through automation.This I-Corps project is based on the development of adaptive robotic nursing assistants for physical and administrative tasks in hospital environments. The technology consists of a mobile manipulator with an omni-directional base, a 6-degrees of freedom (DOF) robotic arm, and sensors to assist with nursing scenarios such as sitting and walking with patients. The sensors include both non-contact proximity and contact tactile skins to allow the robot to operate safely in busy healthcare environments while interacting physically with nurses and patients. The technology also incorporates human-machine interfaces (HMIs) that allow users to interact with the robot in an intuitive manner that may be tailored to individual preferences. The proposed technology’s neuroadaptive learning control technology may adapt to each user’s behavior during physical human-robot interaction, ensuring both high quality interaction, programmable adaptive HMI behaviors, and robust performance under operational uncertainties. Using this technology, the robot can navigate the environment, fetch objects, and automate mundane nursing tasks while keeping healthcare workers in the decision loop.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.