NIH backs three projects to create medical co-robots
From: Government Computer News - 10/29/2013
By: Kevin McCaney

NIH just announced $2.4 million in funding over five years for ”co-robots”
projects, robotic technologies that adapt to their surroundings and work with
people to improve medical procedures and assist in recovery, as part of its
participation in the multiagency National Robotics Initiative.

Here are two examples:

1. An ankle brace for recovering stroke victims that will help lead to
better, less expensive assistive technologies.

Researchers at North Carolina State and Carnegie Mellon Universities are
developing the ankle exoskeleton, which is a platform for testing robotic
controls with the goal of improving assistive technologies for people
impaired by age, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy or stroke. It could help
develop methods for designing assistive devices specifically for individual
patients, which could lead to more effective and less expensive devices.


2. A cane that sees its surroundings and communicates that information to a
visually impaired user.

The cane, a co-robotic navigation aid for the visually impaired, is being
developed at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The goal is to use
“computer vision” to identify stairs, doors and other structures and use an
interaction mechanism to relay that information to the user. In addition to
improving navigation for the visually impaired, the project could also find
ways to improve robotic autonomy and portability, whcich could have uses is
in law enforcement, search and rescue and military surveillance, NIH said.


Read the entire article at:
http://gcn.com/Articles/2013/10/29/co-robots-NIH.aspx

Links:
NIH Funds Development of Novel Robots to Assist People with Disabilities, Aid
  Doctors
http://www.nibib.nih.gov/news-events/newsroom/nih-funds-development-novel-robots-assist-people-disabilities-aid-doctors-0

National Robotics Initiative invests $38 million in next-generation robotics
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=129284

NSF National Robotics Initiative
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503641

NSF National Robotics Initiative Program Solicitation
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14500/nsf14500.htm