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Keynote Talk 1: An Overview of the Co-design Work Run by the UK-wide Project EMERGENCE with Physio and Occupational Therapists
Dr. Cian O'Donovan
Dr. Cian O'Donovan
Dr. Cian O'Donovan is the director of the UCL Centre for Responsible Innovation. The Centre provides a place for scientists and innovators to engage with the needs and values of the public and is housed at UCL's Department of Science and Technology Studies.
Through research and teaching within the Centre and across UCL, Cian explains digital change in today's world and how it could be different. He uses social science methods to tell stories about who benefits from technologies like AI, robotics and digital systems; who is driving and steering change; and with what impacts for people and planet. Cian has recently led research funded by the UKRI EMERGENCE+ Network. An interdisciplinary team asked health and care professional what they need from AI and robotics to continue doing their jobs on their own terms.
Abstract: Building on direct experiences of working with health and care professionals, this talk will discuss the critical challenge of producing continuous professional development (CPD) and learning & teaching resources that meet the needs of health and care professionals who will increasingly share their workplace with autonomous and robotic systems.
In the talk I will introduce a responsible innovation ecosystem approach to co-designing assistive robotic platforms. The idea behind the approach is to open up processes of robotic innovation to stakeholders usually excluded. I will report on a project and broader programme that had at its core a commitment to empowering staff and other users of robotic systems.
First I'll introduce a project that achieved this through the evaluation of human capabilities amongst health and care professionals. I will substantiate three benefits of engagements we designed in order to test this approach: new dynamic measures of acceptability, useful for designers; insights on current and future training needs; and improved safety and comfort features.
I will also provide an overview of the co-design work run by the UK-wide project [EMERGENCE](https://www.emergencerobotics.net/) with physio and occupational therapists to understand how health and social care professionals can benefit from using assistive robotics on their own terms. The EMERGENCE project focuses on promoting world-class advances in healthcare robotics research and development to support people living with frailty within communities in the UK.
Keynote Talk 2: Rehabilitation Robotics: Made as Simple as Possible, but Not Simpler
Keynote Talk 2: Rehabilitation Robotics: Made as Simple as Possible, but Not Simpler
Prof. Sivakumar Balasubramanian
Prof. Sivakumar Balasubramanian is a bioengineer working at the interface of engineering, movement science, and neurorehabilitation. He is currently a Professor and the Head of the Department of Bioengineering at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. He has over 20 years of research experience in developing and clinically validating technology for neurorehabilitation.
His foundational training is in Electrical Engineering. He later pursued a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering, driven by a fascination with technology to address movement-related disability. His research expertise was shaped through his Master’s, doctoral, and post-doctoral work on rehabilitation robotics, sensor-based systems, and novel quantitative methods for movement analysis. The goal of his current research is two-fold: (a) To simplify and translate tools for neurorehabilitation, and (b) To advance the foundations of quantitative movement assessments.
A significant outcome of his past research is the commercialisation of: (i) a compact portable hand therapy robot (Thryv Rehab Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd.) developed by his group at CMC Vellore, India; (ii) a novel interactive upper-limb therapy station (Myro by Tyromotion, Austria) developed as part of his post-doctoral work at Imperial College London.
His current research at CMC Vellore focuses on compact robotic and sensor-based tools for upper-limb neurorehabilitation and systematic methods for quantifying upper-limb movements.
Abstract: The last three decades have seen a deluge of research activity in rehabilitation robotics for upper-limb therapy. However, their infiltration into routine clinical practice remains poor due to their complexity and cost. Do we need complex robots? Can we reduce their cost? Will that improve their chances of clinical translation? Are simple robots clinically useful? This talk will present recent work on addressing some of these important questions to make rehabilitation robotics a clinical reality. In particular, the focus will be on our minimalistic approach towards designing, developing and validating rehabilitation robots for hand and arm training. The talk will conclude with a brief look at the way forward for rehabilitation robots and neurorehabilitation technologies in general.
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