European scientists to develop healthcare robot

IWARD targets mainly hospitals and healthcare centres to overcome the shortages of healthcare staff - a major issue in European healthcare. Our aging society and economic pressure increase the patients-to-medics' ratio, having an adverse effect on healthcare quality and performance. Not being able to attend all patients at the right time and not keeping the hospitals clean enough (e.g. MRSA Transmission) also increases recovery time and cost.

To improve the quality of healthcare, these focal issues emerge: fast identification and location of patients needing immediate attention; reduction of human errors; effective cleaning in hospitals; wider reach of specialist medics, possibly attending patients remotely. To achieve this, IWARD presents a robot swarm delivering support to oversee activities in healthcare environments, providing a multipurpose, cost-effective and scalable solution to enhance quality of healthcare.

Four major tasks are: attendance, recognition, communication and support (assisting/cleaning). Attendance means to monitor hospital wards by robots acting as a dynamic swarm. Recognition points out, that the swarm is able to recognize patients or objects needing attention, providing immediate information about the location and needs of the concerned patients. The robots can be equipped with different adaptable hardware components for floor cleaning and delivery of food, linen, medicine etc. All mobile robots are capable of providing patients and visitors with guidance and information. It provides easy to use but high tech interaction interfaces like voice control through mobile and fix-mounted robots.

Each robot will consist of a basic platform mounted with a module of sensors and equipment for different tasks. So for example, a robot could be fitted with a laser thermometer to measure body heat from a distance or cleaning equipment to mop up spills. Another task could be to guide visitors around the hospital.

While the hardware and modules will use off-the-shelf technology, the swarm-based intelligence will require groundbreaking work, as will the software platform to allow the robots to operate semi-autonomously.

"The idea is not only to have mobile robots but also a full system of integrated information terminals and guide-lights, so the hospital is full of interaction and intelligence," said Thomas Schlegel, the project leader from the Fraunhofer Institute.

"Operating as a completely decentralised network means that the robots can co-ordinate things between themselves, such as deciding which one would be best equipped to deal with a spillage or to transport medicine," he continued.

Each robot would be fitted with a suite of sensors, allowing it to move around the hospital, using proximity sensors to avoid collisions and inbuilt cameras to explore its environment. One robot would be able to warn another if its cameras see a collision.

Information could be communicated between the robots by using either a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) or Bluetooth technology or even infrared lasers.

The robots could then communicate with patients and pass messages on to staff.

Dr Schlegel said "IWARD will mean that hospital staff will be able to spend more time with their patients rather than doing other basic tasks."

The project began this month and the team hopes to have developed a three-robot prototype system by 2010.

For further information, please visit IWARD Project Fact Sheet

Copyright ©European Communities, 2007
Neither the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, nor any person acting on its behalf, is responsible for the use, which might be made of the attached information. The attached information is drawn from the Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS). The CORDIS services are carried on the CORDIS Host in Luxembourg - http://cordis.europa.eu. Access to CORDIS is currently available free-of-charge.

Most Popular Now

Personalized Breast Cancer Prevention No…

A new telemedicine service for personalised breast cancer prevention has launched at preventcancer.co.uk. It allows women aged 30 to 75 across the UK to understand their risk of developing breast...

New App may Help Caregivers of People Ge…

A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham showed that a new app they created can help improve the quality of life for caregivers of patients undergoing bone marrow...

An App to Detect Heart Attacks and Strok…

A potentially lifesaving new smartphone app can help people determine if they are suffering heart attacks or strokes and should seek medical attention, a clinical study suggests. The ECHAS app (Emergency...

A Machine Learning Tool for Diagnosing, …

Scientists aiming to advance cancer diagnostics have developed a machine learning tool that is able to identify metabolism-related molecular profile differences between patients with colorectal cancer and healthy people. The analysis...

Fine-Tuned LLMs Boost Error Detection in…

A type of artificial intelligence (AI) called fine-tuned large language models (LLMs) greatly enhances error detection in radiology reports, according to a new study published in Radiology, a journal of...

DeepSeek-R1 Offers Promising Potential t…

A joint research team from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) has published a perspective article in MedComm...

Deep Learning can Predict Lung Cancer Ri…

A deep learning model was able to predict future lung cancer risk from a single low-dose chest CT scan, according to new research published at the ATS 2025 International Conference...

New Research Finds Specific Learning Str…

If data used to train artificial intelligence models for medical applications, such as hospitals across the Greater Toronto Area, differs from the real-world data, it could lead to patient harm...

'AI Scientist' Suggests Combin…

An 'AI scientist', working in collaboration with human scientists, has found that combinations of cheap and safe drugs - used to treat conditions such as high cholesterol and alcohol dependence...

Patients say "Yes..ish" to the…

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be integrated in healthcare, a new multinational study involving Aarhus University sheds light on how dental patients really feel about its growing role in...

Brains vs. Bytes: Study Compares Diagnos…

A University of Maine study compared how well artificial intelligence (AI) models and human clinicians handled complex or sensitive medical cases. The study published in the Journal of Health Organization...

Philips Foundation 2024 Annual Report: E…

Marking its tenth anniversary, Philips Foundation released its 2024 Annual Report, highlighting a year in which the Philips Foundation helped provide access to quality healthcare for 46.5 million people around...