Descrizione del progetto
Spianare la strada a un futuro di robot medici
Gli operatori sanitari in prima linea nella pandemia di COVID-19 si sono trovati in difficoltà di fronte al notevole aumento di pazienti che necessitano di cure. Il distanziamento sociale, inoltre, ha reso la telemedicina il sistema d’elezione. Per fornire i trattamenti richiesti può dimostrarsi essenziale l’utilizzo di intermediari robotici. Alla luce di tali premesse, il progetto SAMURAI, finanziato dal programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, svilupperà innovativi dispositivi microrobotici morbidi interamente stampati in 3D avvalendosi di tecniche di produzione additiva. Questi microrobot morbidi saranno in grado di muoversi sia in condizioni ambientali, sia attraverso mezzi liquidi. Verranno inoltre sviluppati nuovi protocolli di stampa 3D per la fabbricazione dei microrobot e si procederà alla valutazione di varie progettazioni di biomimica degli stessi. Infine, sarà effettuato un approfondimento delle operazioni autonome mediante l’integrazione di microchip all’interno dei microrobot morbidi.
Obiettivo
"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."
Campo scientifico
- 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
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
581 83 Linkoping
Svezia