Robots for health

Authors: Dr. Benedikt Mohr and Volker Ellerkmann, Bay. Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft, Landesentwicklung und Energie

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Caritas are working together on projects in which robots support caregivers and people with disabilities. What at first sounds like an unusual partnership is unearthing amazing results.

DLR and Caritas are working together to ensure that robots assist caregivers and people with disabilities in the future. (Photo credit: iStock©Django)
In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Bavarian Healthcare Robotics Center is to be created. It is based on the long-standing technology and infrastructure funding of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs for the Robotics and Mechatronics Center (RMZ) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The new center is part of the Bavarian Future Initiative for Assistive Robotics and is intended to make the enormous potential offered by linking research, training and the application of robotic systems in practice available to people in Bavaria. Even though the building is not yet up, research and development work is already in full swing. A wide variety of research and approaches are being pursued to bring assistance robotics into application and industrial implementation.

In addition to medical and care robotics, research and development is being conducted in the areas of space, industrial, service and off-road robotics. The aim is to make the physical interaction of autonomous robots with humans and the environment more effective and safer. They are to operate in environments that are inaccessible or dangerous for humans, but also help and relieve them during work and in everyday life or in old age. To this end, the two research projects SmartAssist and SMiLE have been carried out in cooperation with the Caritas Center Garmisch-Partenkirchen since 2016 with the support of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Assistance robots in care

Project SmartAssist

In the SmartAssist project, a robot assistance system for people with severe motor impairments is being developed. For this purpose, a functional demonstrator is being built based on the DLR lightweight robot and a commercially available electric wheelchair. On the one hand, the research focuses on a control system based on nerve impulses. This will make the system accessible to people who are no longer able to operate a joystick. In addition, semi-autonomous capabilities are being developed to assist people with repetitive activities of daily living, such as pouring and drinking water. The research results will be tested and evaluated in collaboration with directly affected test persons.

Project SMiLE

In the SMiLE project, concepts and assistance applications will be developed to provide effective support in everyday life for people with disabilities as well as people in need of care. In the process, the necessary technologies are being brought to a level of maturity that allows them to be tested in realistic environments - e.g., hospitals and apartments suitable for the elderly or disabled. A wheel-based, humanoid assistance robot and the wheelchair assistant described above will be used.

Project SMiLE2gether

The goals of the follow-up project SMiLE2gether are, on the one hand, to relieve the workload of people involved in care by, for example, having robots take over pick-up and delivery services. On the other hand, the aim is to give people affected by limitations a higher degree of independence. The premise of the research work is not to replace human caregivers, because humans are the best caregivers. In the SMiLE2gether project, the above-mentioned robots will be used and tested at the Caritas St. Vinzenz retirement home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The Caritas Association will act as a project partner alongside DLR. The cooperation between DLR - the experts for the robots - and Caritas or the nursing staff - the experts in the field of nursing - will record and technically implement exactly what a nursing robot must be able to do. Eleven million euros for research The Munich School of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MSRM), based at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), is researching the key issues in the field of assistance robotics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. To this end, the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs is providing funding of eleven million euros for application-oriented and economically sustainable geriatrics research.

Industry partners are also involved in the seven subprojects. In addition, field studies are being conducted in cooperation with geriatric and care facilities. The focus is on the development of a personal service humanoid and its control and connection to a control center by means of UserAvatars. In combination with a highly accurate real-time visualization of bodily functions, a telemedical high-quality assistance can be achieved. With medical assistance robots and devices for early rehabilitation, further important geriatric technologies will be researched and validated.

The research project is implemented by the Technical University of Munich, the German Museum and consortium partners from the Bavarian high-tech industry (Franka Emika, Reactive Robotics, TQ-Systems, CAT Production). Other important partners such as clinics and care facilities will be involved as associated partners.

New job profiles in Care 4.0

The projects show: In the Nursing 4.0 ,  future technical knowledge will be in demand in addition to nursing knowledge. At St. Vincent's, as a continuation of the DLR field studies, a new training center is therefore also to be established in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where new professions, such as that of nursing technician and telecare assistant, can be learned. This is intended to address the new requirements resulting from the use of robots in the field of nursing.