Transcultural Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Health and Social Care provides healthcare professionals with a deeper understanding of the incredible opportunities brought by the emerging field of AI robotics. In addition, it provides robotic researchers with the point-of-view of healthcare professionals to understand what the healthcare sector – as well as the market – really needs from robotics technology. By doing so, the book fills an important gap between both fields in order to leverage new developments and collaborative work in favor of global patients. The book is aimed at the non-technical reader, especially health and social care professionals, and explains in a simple way the technological principles applied in the development of socially assistive humanoid AI robots (SAHR), the values which guide such developments, the ethics related to them, and research approaches in the field, with a focus on achieving a culturally competent SAHR. 2023 PROSE Awards - Winner: Category: Nursing and Allied Health: Association of American Publishers Presents user-friendly and stage-by-stage information to help readers appreciate how AI robots work and how they can be integrated in their work environments Explains why AI and socially assistive robotics need to be culturally competent Helps reduce readers’ fears and change negative prejudices they may have about robots as a relevant tool for healthcare Written by experts in AI robotics and the creators of transcultural health/social robotics Informed by the largest trial conducted with real patients

The integration of robotic systems and artificial intelligence into healthcare settings is accelerating. As these technological developments interact socially with children, the elderly, or the disabled, they may raise concerns besides mere physical safety; concerns that include data protection, inappropriate use of emotions, invasion of privacy, autonomy suppression, decrease in human interaction, and cognitive safety. Given the novelty of these technologies and the uncertainties surrounding the impact of care automation, it is unclear how the law should respond. This book investigates the legal and regulatory implications of the growing use of personal care robots for healthcare purposes. It explores the interplay between various aspects of the law, including safety, data protection, responsibility, transparency, autonomy, and dignity; and it examines different robotic and AI systems, such as social therapy robots, physical assistant robots for rehabilitation, and wheeled passenger carriers. Highlighting specific problems and challenges in regulating complex cyber-physical systems in concrete healthcare applications, it critically assesses the adequacy of current industry standards and emerging regulatory initiatives for robots and AI. After analyzing the potential legal and ethical issues associated with personal care robots, it concludes that the primarily principle-based approach of recent law and robotics studies is too abstract to be as effective as required by the personal care context. Instead, it recommends bridging the gap between general legal principles and their applicability in concrete robotic and AI technologies with a risk-based approach using impact assessments. As the first book to compile both legal and regulatory aspects of personal care robots, this book will be a valuable addition to the literature on robotics, artificial intelligence, human–robot interaction, law, and philosophy of technology.

What is artificial intelligence (AI)? What is healthcare robotics? How can AI and healthcare robotics assist in contemporary medicine? Robotics and AI can offer society unimaginable benefits, such as enabling wheelchair users to walk again, performing surgery in a highly automated and minimally invasive way, and delivering care more efficiently. AI for Healthcare Robotics explains what healthcare robots are and how AI empowers them in achieving the goals of contemporary medicine.

Examines various speech technologies deployed in healthcare service robots to maximize the robot's ability to interpret user input. Demonstrates how robot anthropomorphic features and etiquette in behavior promotes user-positive emotions, acceptance of robots, and compliance with robot requests. Analyzes how multimodal medical-service robots and other cyber-physical systems can reduce mistakes and mishaps in the operating room. Evaluates various input methods for improving acceptance of robots in the older adult population. Presents case studies of cognitively and socially engaging robots in the long-term care setting for helping older adults with activities of daily living and in the pediatric setting for helping children with autism spectrum conditions and metabolic disorders. Speech and Automata in Health Care forges new ground by closely analyzing how three separate disciplines - speech technology, robotics, and medical/surgical/assistive care - intersect with one another, resulting in an innovative way of diagnosing and treating both juvenile and adult illnesses and conditions. This includes the use of speech-enabled robotics to help the elderly population cope with common problems associated with aging caused by the diminution in their sensory, auditory and motor capabilities. By examining the emerging nexus of speech, automata, and health care, the authors demonstrate the exciting potential of automata, both speech-driven and multimodal, to affect the healthcare delivery system so that it better meets the needs of the populations it serves. This book provides both empirical research findings and incisive literature reviews that demonstrate some of the more novel uses of speech-enabled and multimodal automata in the operating room, hospital ward, long-term care facility, and in the home. Studies backed by major universities, research institutes, and by EU-funded collaborative projects are debuted in this volume. This volume provides a wealth of timely material for industrial engineers, speech scientists, computational linguists, and for signal processing and intelligent systems design experts. Topics include: Spoken Interaction with Healthcare Robots Service Robot Feature Effects on Patient Acceptance/Emotional Response Designing Embodied and Virtual Agents for the Operating Room The Emerging Role of Robotics for Personal Health Management in the Older-Adult Population Why Input Methods for Robots that Serve the Older Adult Are Critical for Usability Socially and Cognitively Engaging Robots in the Long-Term Care Setting Voice-Enabled Assistive Robots for Managing Autism Spectrum Conditions ASR and TTS for Voice-Controlled Robot Interactions in Treating Children with Metabolic Disorders

The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the healthcare sector is certain to boost levels of automation and productivity but, paradoxically, it will also increase the availability of “first line competence.” At the same time as demographic trends are affecting demand for health and social care, the technological developments we are seeing make it highly likely that AI will play a decisive role in tackling the challenges our healthcare systems will encounter. This book reveals systemic connections to tackle questions about the potential impact of AI on future challenges in the healthcare sector. Specifically, it develops practical proposals for ways in which AI can be applied to solve these forthcoming issues. It emphasizes the importance of AI in what is known in the literature as human augmentation. The book’s innovative perspective is apparent in the way it challenges conventional wisdom in the context of several pressing questions, such as: • What opportunities and challenges could arise from the application of AI in the healthcare sector? • How can the philosophy of medicine, viewed from a systemic perspective, help us to understand, explain, and resolve some of the future challenges in the healthcare sector? • How could AI affect inclusive employment opportunities for people with disabilities? The book also contains an underlying argument to the effect that the rational approach adopted by economists is perhaps less rational when applied to a healthcare sector that is crying out for more “first line competence.” The primary readership will be academic, but the book will also appeal to policymakers, consultants, HR departments, healthcare stakeholders, and related practitioners.

The text presents the conclusions of four years joint work of 12 European laboratories on mobile robotics technology for healthcare services. The book bridges the human factors and the demands of real-life applications to the achievements of the robotics technology. It is organize d in 15 chapters analyzing topics covering all the related fields and including but not limited to: user - application requirements, human machine interfacing, mobile robots' and mobile manipulators' control architectures, navigation and sensing strategies, and robot - smart building interconnection. It also provides technical details and hints to the reader on how to address real-life problems. The book also performs a historical review and includes an overview of the contemporary developments worldwide.

Robotics for Pandemics explores various applications of robots for current global issues such as pandemics and how robotic solutions could combat the virus. Key Features Proposes to employ robots to improve the treatment of patients and leverage the load of the medical system Demonstrates the concept of various robotics in healthcare telepresence, rehabilitation, therapy and delivery robots to accommodate social distancing Explores social robot aesthetics and how social interaction and embodied experiences could be useful during social isolation Includes anecdotes from applications used during the COVID-19 pandemic This will be a valuable reference to professionals, academics and researchers in the field of robotics.