FW-HTF-P: Safeguarding the Health of Healthcare Workers During Future Pandemics, Using Robotics and Automation

新冠肺炎疫情给医疗体系带来的压力达到了临界点，并改变了医疗服务提供方式，迫使人们大力转向远程医疗。这种减少面对面的医疗就诊是目前和未来医疗保健激增控制的关键战略。然而，目前的远程系统主要提供通信支持，而诊断程序、介入程序和床边护理所需的物理交互仍在很大程度上依赖于面对面护理。自动化和机器人技术方面的创新方法有可能在这些患者护理领域的许多领域协助和保护医护人员。目前的工作开发了新型的顺应性执行器，以实现与患者的安全物理交互，从而将与医疗保健提供者的物理接触需求降至最低。研究人员将设计具有不同程度自主性的机器人系统，使用血管通道输送系统作为试验床。该项目开发的技术可用于减轻下一次大流行的影响，并引领未来医疗保健的变革。该项目服务于临床环境中的医护人员，他们通过调查机器人技术、自主系统、对人-机器人物理交互的信任以及对安全、生产力和经济的影响，来照顾患有传染病和其他疾病的患者。拟议的关于顺应机器人的研究和实验应该会为医疗机器人带来新的技术，这些技术在与人类的物理交互中是安全的，同时保持大规模生产的低成本。拟议的控制设计活动通过提供最大化安全、信任和性能的新策略来解决当前自主机器人控制器的不足。最后，这项工作将来自护理、医学、经济学和心理学的利益相关者以及医疗机器人、人工智能、自治和疾病传播方面的专家聚集在一起，为医疗保健的可持续未来提供路线图，其中增加机器人和自主系统的使用是解决方案的一部分。该奖项反映了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 COVID-19 pandemic has stressed the healthcare system to the breaking point and has transformed healthcare delivery, forcing a strong shift to telemedicine. This reduction in-person healthcare visits is a key strategy for healthcare surge control now and in the future. However, current tele-systems provide mostly communication support, while the physical interactions required for diagnostic procedures, interventional procedures, and bedside care still largely rely on in-person care. Innovative approaches in automation and robotics have the potential to assist and protect healthcare workers in many of these areas of patient care. The current work develops novel compliant actuators to enable safe physical interactions with patients, thus minimizing the need for physical contact with healthcare providers. The investigators will design robotic systems with varying degrees of autonomy, using a vascular access delivery system as a testbed. The technology developed in this project can be used to mitigate the impact of the next pandemic and spearhead change in healthcare for the future. This project serves healthcare workers in clinical settings who care for patients with infectious and other diseases by investigating robotics, autonomous systems, trust of physical human-robot interaction and the impacts on safety, productivity, and economics. The proposed research and experiments on compliant robotics should yield new techniques for medical robots that are safe for physical interaction with humans, while maintaining low cost for mass production. The proposed control-design activities address shortfalls in current autonomous robot controllers by providing new strategies to maximize safety, trust, and performance. Finally, this work brings stakeholders from nursing, medicine, economics, and psychology together with experts in medical robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomy, and disease transmission to provide a roadmap for a sustainable future of healthcare in which increased use of robots and autonomous systems is part of the solution.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.