Healthcare Robotics.

摘要

THE USE OF robots in healthcare represents an exciting opportunity to help a large number of people.Robots can be used to enable people with cognitive, sensory, and motor impairments, help people who are ill or injured, support caregivers, and aid the clinical workforce.This article highlights several recent advancements on these fronts, and discusses their impact on stakeholders.It also outlines several key technological, logistical, and design challenges faced in healthcare robot adoption, and suggests possible avenues for overcoming them.Robots are "physically embodied systems capable of enacting physical change in the world."They enact this change with effectors, which can move the robot (locomotion), or objects in the environment (manipulation).Robots typically use sensor data to make decisions.They can vary in their degree of autonomy, from fully autonomous to fully teleoperated, though most modern system have mixed initiative, or shared autonomy.More broadly, robotics technology includes affiliated systems, such as related sensors, algorithms for processing data, and so on. 28ere have been many recent exciting examples of robotics technology, such as autonomous vehicles, package delivery drones, and robots that work side-by-side with skilled human workers in factories.One of the most exciting areas where robotics has a tremendous potential to make an impact in our daily lives is in healthcare.An estimated 20% of the world's population experience difficulties with physical, cognitive, or sensory functioning, mental health, or behavioral health.These experiences may be temporary or permanent, acute or chronic, and may change throughout one's lifespan.Of these individuals, 190 million experience severe difficulties with activities of daily living tasks (ADL).a These include physical tasks (basic ADLs), such as grooming, feeding, and mobility, to cognitive functioning tasks (instrumental ADLs), which include goal-directed tasks such as problem solving, finance management, and housekeeping. 14The world also has a rapidly aging population, who will only add to this large number of people who may need ADL help.Of all of these individuals, few want to live in a long-term care facility.Instead, a World Bank; http://documents.worldbank.