IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2021 - 46

In our analysis of the DIH-HERO COVID-19 call (Figure 2),
most of the applications targeted the domain of robots supporting health-care professionals (64), patients (27), and
diagnostics (29), demonstrating the priorities of supporting
frontline health-care workers and reducing the spread of
the disease. From Table 2, we can immediately see that
autonomous platforms are key for logistics support and
disinfection. These systems are enabled by advances in
embedded sensors (such as lidar, proximity sensors, and
360° RGB cameras) for both navigation and obstacle
detection. The notable project results highlight interactive
graphical user interfaces designed around the needs of
health-care workers and informed by their direct feedback.
In this way, usable systems that meet real needs are being
created. We also see that user safety is paramount, especially when direct interaction between the robot and
patient is required. In
these cases, supervisory
control may still be needOur role is to reduce
ed (for rehabilitation)
or a controlled setup dethe barriers that hinder
vised (such as the arm
placement mechanism
robotics technology from
for autonomous vaccine
delivery) as well as extenreaching the health-care
sive testing.
Indeed, all rob ot i c
market at all stages of the
devices must have a CE
marking of conformity,
innovation timeline.
which means in the cases
of those robots that are
medical devices, a marking by which a manufacturer indicates that a device is in
conformity with the applicable requirements set out in the
Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) and other applicable
EU harmonization legislation. However, given the dramatic situation in hospitals and other places due to
COVID-19 and a strong interest of public health in such
technologies to help professionals and patients, an emergency-use authorization procedure can be applied.
According to Article 59 ( " Derogation From the Conformity Assessment Procedures " ) of the MDR, any competent authority may authorize, on a duly justified request,
the placing of specific medical devices on the market or
putting into service within the territory of the Member
State concerned.
Going forward, we must understand the evolution of
these technologies by 1) expanding the use cases of logistics
and disinfection robots outside of clinical settings, 2)
encouraging patients to continue physical therapy at home,
and 3) providing less-invasive or distance-based robot
interventions. Furthermore, other robotic solutions for the
domains we have previously described and outlined in Figure 1 should also be evaluated, e.g., by using robots to support mental health [1], which will require extensive design
and user feedback.
46

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

MARCH 2021

Following this COVID-19 DIH-HERO project call, we
will continue to support European health-care robotics.
Our role is to reduce the barriers that hinder robotics technology from reaching the health-care market at all stages of
the innovation timeline. Key to this is comprehensive interaction among stakeholders (the public, patients, companies, clinicians, investors, policy makers, researchers,
educators, and so on), which we are working to achieve via
community engagement, brokerage events, and, ultimately,
our online portal. A part of our digital offer is a service
catalog (https://services.dih-hero.eu) where stakeholders
can engage in knowledge sharing, find partners, understand the market, connect with clinicians, and disseminate
their activities. The Future Technology Demonstrator and
Technology Transfer Experiment DIH-HERO project calls
have begun or are planned, all with the intention of supporting and growing the European robotics industry for
health-care applications.
The contributions robots have already made and will
continue to make in terms of supporting the fight
against COVID-19 motivate innovation. They pave the
way for the wider use of robots in diagnostic, rehabilitation, and interventions and in supporting patients and
health-care professionals.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the involved companies (see
Table 1) for their valuable contributions to the DIH-HERO
project. The work presented in this article received funding
from the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant 825003 DIH-HERO.
References
[1] G.-Z. Yang et al., " Combating COVID-19-The role of robotics in
managing public health and infectious diseases, " Sci. Robot., vol. 5, no.
40, p. eabb5589, Mar. 2020. doi: 10.1126/scirobotics.abb5589.
[2] K. Marchese. " Could robot nurses help save frontline workers
during pandemics like COVID-19? " Designboom.com. https://www
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-covid-19-03-23-2020/ (accessed Jan. 7, 2021).
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[5] A. Moglia, A. Menciassi, M. O. Schurr, and P. Dario, " Wireless capsule endoscopy: From diagnostic devices to multipurpose robotic systems, " Biomed. Microdevices, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 235-243, Dec. 2006. doi:
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https://services.dih-hero.eu http://www.designboom.com/technology/robot-nurses-front.designboom.com/technology/robot-nurses-frontline-workers-covid-19-03-23-2020/ http://www.Designboom.com http://www.designboom.com/technology/robot-nurses-front.designboom.com/technology/robot-nurses-frontline-workers-covid-19-03-23-2020/ http://www.designboom.com/technology/robot-nurses-front.designboom.com/technology/robot-nurses-frontline-workers-covid-19-03-23-2020/ https://spectrum.ieee.org/news-from-around-ieee/the-institute/ieee-member-news/pal-robotics-customizable-bots-could-be-the-next-frontline-workers https://spectrum.ieee.org/news-from-around-ieee/the-institute/ieee-member-news/pal-robotics-customizable-bots-could-be-the-next-frontline-workers https://spectrum.ieee.org/news-from-around-ieee/the-institute/ieee-member-news/pal-robotics-customizable-bots-could-be-the-next-frontline-workers https://dih.hero.eu/ https://dih.hero.eu/

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2021

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