Robots Against Infectious Diseases

摘要

Robots can play an integral role in the fight against infectious diseases. Robots, unlike humans, cannot catch infectious diseases; unlike vaccines, they are agnostic to specific infectious agents; unlike antibiotics, they do not contribute to medically-resistant strains. Despite these benefits, there remain enormous technical, cultural, and social-psychological challenges to successfully deploy robots in the fight against infectious disease outbreaks. I propose three research questions that will help overcome these hurdles. These questions are informed by my previous work in the space and the relevant literature. Four studies are outlined to answer these questions: an observational study in the field to ascertain current practices as well as environmental and cultural constraints, an extension to previous work to understand if the effect found therein is cross-cultural, a longitudinal user-study on the teleoperation interface, and an examination of physical visibility proxies for use during robot-mediated health care.