Call for Participation, 2-page
proposals due by 25 April:
CCC
/ CRA Roadmapping
for Robotics Workshop:
"A Research Roadmap for Medical
and Healthcare Robotics"
June
19-20, 2008
Westin Arlington, Washington DC
Co-Chairs:
Allison Okamura, Johns Hopkins University
Maja Mataric', University of Southern California
Henrik Christensen, Georgia Tech
(All expenses for approved participants will be covered by CCC)
This one-and-a-half-day CCC/CRA sponsored workshop will
(1) identify
a focused set of major US research goals for medical and healthcare
robotics, and (2) develop a roadmap for achieving these research goals
in the coming decade. The workshop will include US leaders in academia,
industry, and government. Although the US robotics research community
is highly diversified, analogous efforts in Europe and Japan to reach
consensus and develop unified research roadmaps for their regions have
been extremely successful in creating new partnerships and attracting
major research funding. Results of this workshop will be presented to
US government agencies.
This workshop is one of four planned under the project:
"From
Internet to Robotics: The Next Transformative Technology", accepted by
the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) with the goal of ensuring that
basic research addresses the key problems that will allow American
companies to have a leading role in the deployment of future
generations of robots: http://www.us-robotics.us/
Rationale
Recent demographic studies suggest that we will go
through a period
of significant population aging over the next 2-3 decades. Japan will
see a doubling in the number of people over the age of 65, Europe will
have a 50% increase, and the US will experience a ~40% increase in the
number of elderly by 2030. The number of people with an age above 80
will increase by more than 100% across all continents. Advances in
medicine have increased the life span and this, in combination with
reduced birthrates, will result in an aging of society in general. This
demographic trend will have a significant impact on industrial
production, housing, continued education, and healthcare. Many of these
aspects could be directly impacted through the use of intelligent
robotics.
Robotics is already beginning to affect healthcare.
Telerobotic
systems such as the da Vinci surgical system are being used to perform
surgery, resulting in shorter recovery times and more reliable outcomes
in some procedures. The use of robotics as part of a
computer-integrated surgery systems is clearly important for accurate,
targeted medical interventions. It has been hypothesized that surgery
and interventional radiology will be transformed through the
integration of computers and robotics much in the way that
manufacturing was revolutionized by automation several decades ago.
Haptic devices, a form of robotics, are also relevant for simulations
to train medical personnel.
The potential in rehabilitation is also great. The
current rate of
new strokes is 750,000 per year, and that number is expected to double
in the next two decades. Stroke patients must engage in intensive and
immediate rehabilitation in order to attempt to regain function and
minimize permanent disability. However, there is already a shortage of
suitable physical therapists, and the changing demographics indicate a
yawning gap in care in the near future. Experiments have demonstrated
that robotic systems can provide therapy oversight, coaching, and
motivation with little or no supervision by human therapists, and can
continue long-term therapy in the home after hospitalization.
On the younger side of the age spectrum, the number of
neurodevelopmental and cognitive disorders is on the rise, including
autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder,
and others. Autism rates alone have quadrupled in the last quarter
century, with one in 150 children diagnosed with the deficit today.
Socially assistive robots have already been shown to have promise as
therapeutic tool for children with such disorders, by providing a means
of communication and social skill training. Socially assistive robotics
in general has the potential to improve quality of life measures for
large and growing populations across the age spectrum.
Robotics can also be used to augment and stimulate basic
science to
understand human health. The ability to create a robotic system that
mimics biology is one way to test and possibly demonstrate that we know
how the human body and brain function. Robots can also be used to
acquire data from biological systems with unprecedented accuracy.
Finally, robots can be used for ideally calibrated behavioral
experiments aiming to gain insights into both physical and social
behaviors. These contributions can stimulate the development of new
treatments for a wide variety of diseases and disorders.
Format
In this highly focused meeting, brainstorming sessions
will cover
robotics for medical and healthcare applications and will identify (a)
new application areas that will maximize socio-economic impact; (b)
core competency areas for U.S. research and development; and (c)
formulation of the roadmap.
Travel, meals, and lodging expenses for up to 30
approved participants will be reimbursed by the CCC.
We encourage interested experts from industry,
government, and academia to submit a short proposal via email by April
25, 2008:
1) Name, affiliation, and contact info
2) 2-3 broad research ideas relevant to the workshop goals outlined
above
Proposals must be under 2 pages in plain text or .pdf
format. Please
put "CCC Research Roadmap Proposal" on the subject line, and email to medical-ws@us-robotics.us.
Selected applicants will be notified by May 15, 2008.
Due to funding limitations, we can accept only 30
participants.
Anyone who submits a proposal will receive a copy of the final workshop
report and info on how they might participate in the CCC robotics
effort. This workshop is being held as part of a group of CCC robotics
workshops examining the areas of manufacturing, service, healthcare,
and emerging topics in robotics.
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