RoboMedicus - Healthcare Robotics Track

The following sessions take place in the RoboMedicus - Healthcare Robotics track:
Assistive Robotics: Making the Leap from the Lab to Commercial Development
Finding the Robot’s Place in the OR: Surgi-Mimetic Robots Versus Robo-Mimetic Surgery
Rehabilitation Robotics
Improving Healthcare Outcomes & Reducing Costs through Medical Automation
Socially Interactive Robots in Therapeutic Play
Transforming Medical Robotic Technologies with High Precision Drive Solutions

Wednesday, April 15

2:00pm - 2:45pm
Assistive Robotics: Making the Leap from the Lab to Commercial Development
Despite over two decades of development in academic labs, few assistive robots have been commercially developed and sold to end users.  This talk will examine the market for assistive robotics and present recent developments from academic labs.  Commercially available assistive robots will be discussed, as will barriers to development and opportunities in the domain.
Holly Yanco, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, University of Massachusetts Lowell

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3:00pm - 3:45pm
Finding the Robot’s Place in the OR: Surgi-Mimetic Robots Versus Robo-Mimetic Surgery
Many of the first attempts to introduce robots into manufacturing failed because they were based on using a robot to reproduce tasks designed for the capabilities of a human. The subsequent successful integration of robots into manufacturing was achieved by adapting the task and the product design to fit the capabilities of the robot. The first forays of surgical robots into the OR have paralleled those in manufacturing – applying general-purpose robot designs to reproduce the motions of manual surgical procedures. The quest for killer app’s yielding results that are faster, better and cheaper is ongoing. This talk proposes applying the lessons learned from manufacturing to surgical robot evolution. While we cannot redesign the human body, we can reinvent surgical techniques and tools to fit those capabilities at which robots excel – precise, small-scale motions; high-bandwidth motion compensation; and integration with multi-modal sensing systems. We can also adapt robot design to fit the constraints of the human body. This session will provide examples in applying these principles to the design of robots and tools for beating-heart intracardiac surgery.
Pierre Dupont, Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University

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4:15pm - 5:00pm
Rehabilitation Robotics
Until quite recently, the use of robotics in healthcare was largely been limited to teleoperated minimally invasive surgery procedures or in support of surgical procedures.  However, robotics technology is now being applied to many different areas of healthcare, including physical therapy and rehabilitation.  With traditional physical therapy, many therapists often work with one patient, to support their limbs and help them move. It is now possible to use robotic technology to perform the same rehabilitative tasks using less people while providing a more consistent and lengthy training regimen, while tracking patient's progress with great precision.  The result is a better level of care at reduced cost for the service provider.  In this session, attendees will learn about recent advances in rehabilitation robotics, including quantified results of the approach and insights into future developments.
Charles Remsberg, CEO, Hocoma Inc

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Thursday, April 16

1:45pm - 2:30pm
Improving Healthcare Outcomes & Reducing Costs through Medical Automation
Healthcare is becoming more complex, costs are skyrocketing and in many areas it is approaching collapse.  Thankfully, there are ways in which automation technology, including robotic technology, can be used to meet healthcare’s many challenges. In this session, attendees will learn how robotics and automation technologies are impacting all aspects of the healthcare industry. Discussion will include how technologies can impact the needs of clinicians at the various venues of healthcare delivery from the most acute (e.g., accident or battleground) to the least (e.g., home and ambulatory). Needs at all venues of healthcare delivery will be solved by incorporating capabilities provided by many technologies, including surgical robotics, sensing, MEMS, imaging, remote monitoring and software among others to diagnose and effect an appropriate therapy. The ways in which the robotics community can participate in the healthcare market, along with the impact that future robotic and automation products will have on healthcare industry will be discussed.
Martin Sklar, President, Automated Medical Instruments

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2:45pm - 3:30pm
Socially Interactive Robots in Therapeutic Play
Socially interactive robots are finding increasing utility - beyond the service and entertainment domains - in child psychology research and in therapeutic practice for developmental disorders like autism. Such robots can help us study human social development while serving to facilitate social interaction between children, peers, and caregivers. In this session, Marek Michalowski (Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute & BeatBots LLC) will discuss the field of child-robot interaction research and therapeutic play, focusing on efforts to productize therapeutic robotics products, including his own work with the robot Keepon.
Marek P. Michalowski, Co-Founder & President, BeatBots LLC

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4:00pm - 4:45pm
Transforming Medical Robotic Technologies with High Precision Drive Solutions
Advances in drive technology allow medical devices to become increasing smaller, as well as extremely accurate and highly efficient. In this session attendees will learn of specific advances in precision drive technology and how that technology is opening up new opportunities in the medical robotics market. Examples of innovative surgical, educational and rehabilitation robotics applications where high precision microdrives provide reliable solutions will be discussed.
Joe Martino, Sales Engineer, Maxon Motors

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