Descripción del proyecto
Preparar el camino para los robots médicos del futuro
El personal sanitario que se encuentra en primera línea de la pandemia de COVID-19 ha tenido problemas para hacer frente al gran aumento de pacientes que requieren tratamiento. Además, el distanciamiento social ha hecho que la telemedicina sea la opción preferida. Así, el uso de intermediarios robóticos para los tratamientos puede resultar esencial. En este contexto, el proyecto SAMURAI, financiado por las Acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, desarrollará innovadores dispositivos microrrobóticos blandos totalmente impresos en tres dimensiones (3D) mediante técnicas de fabricación por adición. Estos microrrobots blandos podrán moverse tanto en condiciones ambientales como en medios líquidos. Además, se desarrollarán nuevos protocolos de impresión en 3D para fabricar los microrrobots y se evaluarán varios diseños de biomimetización de los microrrobots. Por último, se investigará el funcionamiento autónomo incrustando microchips en los microrrobots blandos.
Objetivo
"Current healthcare systems are facing major challenges due to the recent global pandemic. The human-human interaction has become hazardous as infection rates rise and healthcare workers are finding increased difficulty in managing the overwhelming number of patients and necessary resources for treatment are constrained. The use of robotic intermediaries for diagnosis and treatment may solve these challenges. The demand for automated medical systems is increasing which can facilitate telemedicine and distribution of individual treatment and care from the limited number of experts simultaneously to multiple patients. Current robotic medical systems are bulky and expensive, limiting use especially for low income counties. Here, soft robotic systems offer several advantages over their conventional and rigid counterparts. They are compliant and can mimic the excellent dexterity of bio-organisms. They can be fabricated by Additive Manufacturing Technology in automated fabrication and thus reduce the cost of the (soft) medical systems. SAMURAI will develop innovative soft microrobotic devices fully 3D printed using additive manufacturing techniques. By using microactuators based on electroactive polymers and ionogels as the movement generating ""limbs"", soft microrobots will be fabricated that can move both in ambient condition and liquid media, resulting in amphibious devices. New 3D printing protocols will be developed and optimized for fabricating the microrobot. Various biomimicking designs of the microrobot will be evaluated. Finally, autonomous operation will be investigated by embedding the soft microrobot with a microchip. The miniaturization of the robotic devices in SAMURAI will pave the way to a future of medical robots traversing the complex micro-channels present in the body. SAMURAI will effectively re-establish the researcher’s career by high quality training and knowledge transfer and offering new networks and skills in applied sciences."
Ámbito científico
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthepidemiologypandemics
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticssoft robotics
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringadditive manufacturing
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
581 83 Linkoping
Suecia