Service Robots > Medical Robots

New Robotherapy for children with autism could reduce patient supervision by therapists. 05.07.2017 Autism treatments and therapies routinely make headlines. With robot enhanced therapies on the rise, often overlooked though, is the mental stress and physical toll the procedures take on therapists. As autism treatments can be taxing on both patient and therapists, few realize the stress and workload of those working with autistic patients. It is against this backdrop, that researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel are pioneering a new technology to aid behavioural therapy, and one with a very deliberate aspect: they are using robots to boost the basic social learning skills of children with ASD and while […] Read More

In an experiment that was run by University of Pittsburgh and DARPA,  two microelectronic devices were placed on the brain of a volunteered patient, on a location where the brain processed tactile sensations, in order to achieve sense of touch between a robot hand and brain. After connecting electrodes from the brain to the robotic arm, the patient correctly was able to identify which finger were touched. In another experiment before that was run again by DARPA, it was demonstrated that the robot arm could be controlled directly by brain and now the feeling of sensation is added to this, which completes the loop. The rest will be just refining […] Read More

Here is a good read about robots and AI slowly but surely replacing doctors in hospitals – not to say that we will not need doctors anytime soon. http://singularityhub.com/2016/02/10/robots-in-health-care-could-lead-to-a-doctorless-hospital/?utm_content=buffer0aa18&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Read More

In an effort to facilitate learning of its AI platform Watson, IBM has bought a medical imaging company, in order to show its Watson lots (billions) of medical images, to improve its diagnostics ability. The system could prove very helpful in assisting doctors to make diagnostics. See details here: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/540141/why-ibm-just-bought-billions-of-medical-images-for-watson-to-look-at/ Read More

A soft, wearable device that mimics the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the lower leg could aid in the rehabilitation of patients with ankle-foot disorders such as drop foot, said Yong-Lae Park, an assistant professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. Park, working with collaborators at Harvard University, the University of Southern California, MIT and BioSensics, developed an active orthotic device using soft plastics and composite materials, instead of a rigid exoskeleton. The soft materials, combined with pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs), lightweight sensors and advanced control software, made it possible for the robotic device to achieve natural motions in the ankle. The researchers reported on the development in the journal […] Read More