Challenge Launched To Further Robot Use In Healthcare

A new Social Care Robot Challenge has been added to the roster for the second UK Robotics Week 2017, taking place between June 24th and 30th.

The aim of the challenge is to help facilitate the full integration of robots into healthcare services around the UK, including those set up to support older people and anyone with long-term health conditions.

Currently, 65 per cent of the UK’s Department of Work and Pensions benefit costs come from people over the working age. The likelihood of moderate to severe disability climbs quickly as we get older, reaching 50 per cent once we’re over the age of 85 – and care delivery in an ageing population does pose big economic challenges on a national scale.

“Assistive robots designed to support independent living will need to work safely with and alongside people, requiring advances in multiple scientific and engineering domains, including artificial intelligence, mechatronics, materials, sensing, and human-robot interaction,” Dr Guang-Zhong Yang, director and co-founder of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery at Imperial College London, said.

Research issues that need to be addressed from the perspective of robot social cognition could include food prep, remote assistance, social support, assisted mobility, personal hygiene and preventative and rehabilitation monitoring.

Other competitions to be included in this year’s event are the Surgical Robot Challenge, the Extreme Environments Robot Challenge, the Social Care Robot Challenge and the Robots for Resilient Infrastructure Challenge.

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