The Graveyard of Healthcare Robots

A special place within the Graveyard of Robots should be reserved for all those well meaning creatures that were made to help provide healthcare to all those in need, the Healthcare Robots, may they rest in peace.

Keepon (now by BeatBots)

A famous paper about Keepon. It was designed to help kids with autism and appeared to be doing something right.

Here is the website of BeatBots. Keepon was downgraded in their tenure into nothingness I believe.

Riba II and Robear by RIKEN

The demonstration video was quite an internet hit

Riba I en II were followed by Robear, but I think that one was also last seen around 2015, see here.

A demonstration video by Riken. Notice the extending legs to keep balance.

The design of the robot looks quite interesting. It is focused on lifting or sustaining the weight of people during transfers. So for examples, lifting somebody from a bed to a wheelchair, or from a chair to an upright position and then to a wheelchair. Such transfers are very frequent and important parts of daily healthcare for many people. And theer is already technology in place to helpt with such transfers, such as hoists, stand aids, transfer boards or slide sheets. See, for some examples here. The specific transfer scenario that Robear is demonstrating is typically done with a lifting system like below:

A demonstration of a lift to transfer from toilet or chair to bed or different chair or toilet.

Looking closer at this exact scenario it is clear to me that Robear lacks good gripping points. It does not have a way to grip the hands or arms and it does not offer something for the human to grip with their hands. So, Robear needs to wrap its hands all the way around the body, which is usually done by some kind of sling.

In any case, I have not found more recent examples of Robear actually in use anywhere.

Care-o-Bot 1-4 by Fraunhofer

Care-oBot was or is a very well known healthcare robot. It featured in quite a few research projects. And the presentation video of Care-o-Bot 4 was unforgettable:

The wonderfully nice yet completely unrealistic presentation video of Care-o-Bot 4

So, is this slick and smooth robot dandy actually in use anywhere at the moment? Well, I found this video from 2021 that shows a modified version working for that enormously important function that is such a bottleneck in healthcare: bringing water to patients.

Wow, it brings a bottle of water. Careful you don’t hurt yourself, Care-o-Bot.

There is a support page where you can find contact info if you want to know more.

All in all Care-o-Bot is a very typical example of a very expensive robot, requiring a specific environment (no barriers, room to maneuver) that can essentially do nothing useful really. In many hospitals water and drinks are brought by volunteers or (pre-)pensioners who also provide a social function. There is no point in replacing them with a robot.

At the same time I understand that the basic problems of navigating and staying out of people’s way need to be solved and this requires effort as well. Still, it may be the case that those problems will be solved in very different ways. Think, for example, of robots following service lines.

I am not aware of Care-o-Bot actually in use anywhere at the moment.

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The Robot Graveyard

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
So will the iron, return to rust
Ideas will linger or slowly disperse
Promising things turn out for the worst

Asimo 2000-2022

Asimo was one of the greatest robots ever designed and built. Honda was the company that created Asimo. Its main job, in my opinion was to entertain people and create attention and PR for Honda, as well as partners such as Disneyworld. Asimo was retired in 2022.

Romeo by Aldebaran

Romeo was supposed to be the next generation from Aldebaran, after Nao and Pepper. The research project was however stopped before its completion.

Aibo by Sony

Astro for business by Amazon

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Notes on Surgical Robotics

Where are the days of Da Vinci? Where are the great inspiring works that advance mankind wth great leaps and afford kings voctories and conquests?

Well, who knows, let us check out developments in the area of surgical robotics, shall we, dear reader?

Da Vinci by Intuitive

Where else to start but at the most famous surgical robot system in the world: the Da Vinci robot. Made by a company called Intuitive, who have the following claim:

“Intuitive advances minimally invasive care by helping physicians and their teams optimize care delivery to support the best outcomes possible. For nearly three decades we’ve created products and services born of inspiration and intelligence.”

They are up to Da Vinci 5 now (upgrade from the Da Vinci Xi) which looks amazing on their website and on YouTube, with plenty of new features; force feedback, 3D vision, etc.

The commercial video by Intuitive on Da Vinci 5
Here is an in-depth review of Da Vinci 5

My impression was that in many countries, robotic surgery was something of a hype a few years ago, in the sense that hospitals felt they needed to have it in their arsenal because it was something patients looked for. However, the outcomes of surgery were not demonstrably better than those with regular surgery or laparoscopic surgery for many procedures, while the costs were higher. So, for many procedures robotic surgery was not actually the preferred method. However, I do believe that in recent years additional robotic systems have been created by various companies that may provide competition for Da Vinci (thus potentially lowering costs) and systems that focus on specific procedures thereby further optimizing outcomes. Let us look closer into that.

Competition and diversification

There is an interesting article from 2020 outlining the market and competitors here. It should be interesting to watch if some of the predictions in that article were right and how the various competing products are doing in the market.

hinotori™ Robotic Assisted Surgery System

Commercial video

Versius Surgical Robotic System

A more modular system. Versius by CMR Surgical.

Sentante

A commercial video

The first fully-robotic teleoperated system for endovascular interventions. Endovascular procedures performed remotely with uncompromised feedback force

Sentante is a teleoperated robotic system developed by Lithuanian company UAB Inovatyvi Medicina. It allows an endovascular intervention to be performed remotely, from a different room, so physicians and the entire medical team can work without being exposed to harmful X-ray radiation.

Hugo™ robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) system

From the company Medtronic.

The robotic-assisted surgery device that gives you more choice. As the first soft tissue surgical company with open, laparoscopic, robotic, and digital solutions — giving you more choice is central to everything we do.

Sources for more information

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Notes on Social Robots for Elderly Care

Interesting company: KOMPAÏ robotics – Mobile Robots Serving Healthcare.

It is somehow a spin-off from the Robosoft company. They also occupy ‘robosoft.com’. But what to Robosoft? There is an entry in the ECHORD++ that is a bit older here. Established in 1985 by INRIA researchers and involved in research until about 2014, doing mobile robots for elderly care.

There is also a company called Robosoft Technologies. They are however not doing robotics it appears. Their about us mentions “A catalyst for digital business solutions since 1996”.

Then, there is an Indian company called Robosoft Systems: “Robosoft Systems is a privately held company located in Mumbai, India. Robosoft Systems is primarily a Research and Development based company in field of Internet of Things, Smart Manufacturing, Robotics and Automation since 2008.” The created DuctBot for HVAC incpection and cleaning for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ).

Kompaï robotics also mentions on the website ‘The KOMPAÏ Cat – An emotional robot’ here. The Dutch company Nenko includes that one in the video below. Nenko provides multi sensory stimulation. They have a category in their webshop Affection Animals, which is quite extensive.

The robot cats and dogs are from Joy for All, another interesting company with their own webshop. They also have a funny little robot bird, the Walker Squaker:

Rita, the 93 yr old inventor 🙂
Usage explanation of the Walker Squawker

The ‘about us‘ section of Joy for All (the brand name used by the company ‘Ageless Innovations’) tells the tale of the brnad, the company and its products well. It started as a brand by Hasbro, then it was spun out.

An alternative robot cat is MetaCat, priced around $200.

An overly complete review of MetaCat

Petopedia did a decent review video with different pets. They did not include much info about price and where to get it, but it does provide some nice images:

Tombot is another robot dog puppy.

PPM became shareholder and development partner of KOMPAÏ Robotics AS, in Biarritz in France. PPM is located in Trondheim, facilities include a Nursing Home Lab equipped with service robots from various manufacturers.

For their service robots for elderly care PPM has an interesting set of descriptions of applications, or usage scenario’s. These mostly involve the KOMPAÏ Assist robot:

Future dreams about functionality

For now, however, like so many other healthcare service robots, it mainly functions as a glorified music player, an iPad with speakers on a mobile platform:

In a new video in 2023 it is explained that a new function has been added: you can now also select a radio station to play music and even add mp3 files. Moreover you can add something to project images onto the ceiling.

Let us hope that this robotic firm actually manages to go beyond the point where a company like QBMT \ Zora (a software platform around the Nao robot) got stuck. I believe that company ended, but the technology was transferred to several others: Robots in de Zorg (this is more of a tradename of Interactive Robotics who are focusing a bit more on education through another tradename Robots in de Klas, letting kids program Nao and such, but it looks like they are also still servicing the existing customer base for Zora) and another is Zorabots which also partners with Interactive Robotics and seems to be focusing more on creating integrated solutions through their Zorabots Operating System that connects with robotic and other hardware and software.

Promises, promises, turn to dust… I consider this video from 2017, and other messages around Zora, damaging to a good introduction of robotics in healthcare. The actual functionality of Nao in terms of practical scenarios is very limited, and its reliability in simple tasks is not good. Thus, many healthcare professionals have had very disappointing experiences with Zora and it did not deliver on its promises.

Where have all the robots gone? Long time passing
Gone to showrooms, every one. All for naught but had some fun.


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ISO Standard on Collaborative Robots: ISO/TS 15066:2016

There is an interesting new standard in the ISO archives:

ISO/TS 15066:2016
Robots and robotic devices — Collaborative robots

In recent times such collaborative robots are becoming available and they are already usable for certain scenarios. Please check out the videos below for some impressions (not all of the are real-world applications yet, some are only demo’s from suppliers):

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UPA4SAR

UPA4SAR. User-oriented profiling and adaptation for socially supported robotics. The aim of the project is to design an adaptive behavior of a robot system that is responsible for maintaining the Activity of Daily Living (ADL) of the user in the case of people with dementia.

Main roboticist involved is Silvia Rossi of the University of Naples.

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Some projects in Healthcare Robotics

UPA4SAR. User-centered Profiling and Adaptation for Socially Assistive Robotics. The project goal is to design an adaptive behavior of a robotic system that is in charge of monitoring the user’s Activity of Daily Living (ADL) in the case of people with dementia.

ALIZ-E The ALIZ-E project set out in 2010 to build the artificial intelligence (AI) for small social robots and to study how young people would respond to these robots.  FP7-ICT-248116

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Must-See: A Robotic Dog’s Mortality (NY Times)

The link to the full story

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More Robot Helpers by the Bed?

It pays to have a look at the cause of the poll, which was news (i.e. on Zorgvisie) about a German ‘Helper Robot’, the Casero (see picture). There are more of such robots under development (e.g. Care-o-Bot). One could describe them as driving carts, with clever bits and pieces, that can serve drinks and food for example.

According to the researchers developing him the idea behind Casero is (source: Robotics Wire):

When the Duisburg researchers observed the care workers’ daily routines and tasks, they soon noticed that there was seldom enough time to exchange a few kind words with patients. Staff shortages were everywhere. While the robots run errands and allow games to be played on their displays, care workers could devote more of their time to caring for the elderly.

Well, that line of reasoning is interesting, but illogical if buying an maintaining robots is as expensive as hiring people. Then it should be seen as replacement. For Zorgvisie also report:

The robot is hardly cheap. “Casero is as expensive as a fulltime hire”, says Volker Bessler of the care home in Stuttgart where the first service robot was tested.

In this light, it is understandable that most people rejected the idea that it constitutes an improvement. And then we have not even discussed all the things the robot can not do.

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The Sleeping Buddy

An interactive cuddly toy to bring along to bed to help you sleep or soothes you in the night when you wake. Which kid would not like to have one? And in the care for the mentally disabled it could also help a lot of people.

Charged by Robots that Care and Sherpa, a care facility where Jeroen works part time, a group of young students has started to design a Sleeping Buddy. This is done at a Duthc Technasium, for the Research and Design lessons which are the core of that school.


A first impression of the Sleeping Buddy

The idea behind this cuddlebot is that it can measure sleep using various sensors, and that it can try to improve sleep, through display-options (lichts, music, etc.) and the interaction with the problematic sleeper (for example through joining and calming their heartbeat or breathing frequency).

A similar development is taking place at Somnox. Or, to be honest, they are a bit further 🙂

But with this initiative Sylvia Loos is involved, of Nyx Zorg voor Slaap and of Sherpa. She and Theo of Nyx have a very large experience with sleeping problems of people with mental disabilities and they are helping to achieve a good design.

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