Description du projet
Ouvrir la voie à un avenir de robots médicaux
Les travailleurs de la santé se trouvant en première ligne lors de la pandémie de COVID-19 ont éprouvé des difficultés à faire face à l’augmentation considérable du nombre de patients nécessitant un traitement. En outre, la distanciation sociale a fait de la télémédecine un système de choix. En ce qui concerne le traitement, l’utilisation d’intermédiaires robotiques peut s’avérer essentielle. Dans ce contexte, le projet SAMURAI, financé par un programme Actions Marie Skłodowska-Curie, développera des dispositifs microrobotiques mous innovants entièrement imprimés en 3D à l’aide de techniques de fabrication additive. Ces microrobots mous seront capables de se déplacer aussi bien dans des conditions ambiantes que dans des milieux liquides. De plus, de nouveaux protocoles d’impression 3D seront mis au point pour la fabrication des microrobots, et différents modèles biomimétiques de microrobots seront évalués. Enfin, le fonctionnement autonome sera étudié en intégrant des micropuces aux microrobots mous.
Objectif
"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."
Champ scientifique
- 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
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
581 83 Linkoping
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