Charlie Kemp, Hello Robot Mobile Manipulation for Healthcare
Mobile manipulators can meaningfully benefit people with disabilities, yet capable robots have been too big, heavy and expensive to be practical. Charlie Kemp, director of the Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech and co-founder of Hello Robot, will present the R&D that led to Hello Robot’s Stretch RE1, a compact and lightweight mobile manipulator that achieves a new level of affordability. He’ll also show examples of healthcare-related work by the growing community of researchers and developers using Stretch.
Paolo Pirjanian, Embodied Developing Robots That Can Promote Social-Emotional Learning in Children
In this engaging presentation, Paolo Pirjanian, CEO at Embodied, will discuss how the relationship between humans and machines is evolving, including how robots and robotic technology can be applied for social good. Specifically, he will review the development of Moxie, a companion for children designed to help promote social, emotional, and cognitive development through everyday play-based learning and content. He will describe how machine learning was employed to so that Moxie platform could perceive, process and respond to natural conversation, eye contact, and facial expressions, as well as recognize and recall people, places, and things. He will also highlight how this sensory input can be used to help children learn and safely practice essential life skills such as turn taking, eye contact, emotion regulation, relationship management, and problem solving.
Adam Sachs, Vicarious Surgical Reimaging Surgical Robotics
In this keynote presentation, Adam Sachs, CEO and Co-founder of Vicarious Surgical, will discuss the ways in which the Vicarious Surgical robotic system is driving the field of minimally invasive surgery forward. He will also describe some of the challenges and opportunities the company faced as it set out to innovate in the healthcare space. Sachs will explain why the field needed a push, the innovations the Vicarious Surgical robotic system brings to patient care, and the unique, collaborative approach Vicarious Surgical is taking to the design and development phase of its work.
Conor Walsh, Harvard University Augmenting and Restoring Human Performance
In this keynote session, Conor Walsh, the Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, will provide attendees with an overview of the Harvard Biodesign Lab’s efforts to develop and commercialize new disruptive robotic technologies for restoring and augmenting human performance. He will highlight multiple projects that have evolved from concepts to become commercial products. Walsh will also describe how these technologies and systems are utilized for various applications such as restoring the mobility of patients with gait deficits, assisting those with upper extremity impairment to regain function, and preventing injuries of workers performing physically strenuous tasks.
Millimeter Precision in Surgical Environments with Microlocation
Shawn Henry, Humatics
Healthcare Motion Control Technology Trends
Prabh Gowrisankaran, Performance Motion Devices
Integrating Force-Sensing for Surgical Haptic Force Feedback
Robert Brooks, ForceN
Panel: Advanced Motion Control Solutions for Healthcare Robotics Applications
Motion control is what makes robotics systems ‘robotic’, and it is advances in motion control technologies that have spurred a great deal of robotics innovation and a dramatic increase in the use of robotics technologies and products around the globe, including for healthcare applications. But compared to industrial and consumer motion control technologies, solutions for healthcare applications typically have different, and often very stringent, functional requirements in areas such as safety, reliability, tolerances, cleanability, sterilization and more. In this panel session, attendees will learn how the latest products and technologies support the development of advanced healthcare robotics systems and allow for new capabilities, new applications, and entry into new markets.
Developing a Signing Robot: Using 3D Printing and AI to Support Disabled Communities
The Healthcare Robotics Opportunity Landscape: Where Are We, Where Are We Going
Corey Ryan, Kuka
Panel: Attract Investors by Protecting Innovations in Medical Robotics
Panel: Designing Healthcare Robotics Solutions for Usability, Safety, and Compliance
The development of commercial class healthcare robotics solutions demands expertise in multiple disciplines – specifically software, mechanical and electrical engineering. The strict operational requirements for healthcare solutions adds additional burdens for the robotics developer. Yet even if these obstacles are overcome, many other significant, often unrecognized, challenges emerge related to regulatory compliance, usability of the final engineered product, as well as healthcare provider and patient safety when robotics systems are employed. In this panel session, representatives from companies that design, engineer and sell healthcare robotics products for various markets will review standards, techniques and methodologies that assure compliance, optimize usability, and maximize safety of healthcare robotics solutions.
