Robotics in Healthcare

This edited collection is about Robotics in Healthcare. Challenges in the robotics-healthcare tuple are presented through reflections and case-studies, including field experiments.
As societies develop, well-being concerns tend to emerge and technologies are pressed to deliver solutions. Robotics and related technologies are currently undergoing an expansion to areas directly related to well-being. Healthcare is probably the most striking example.

The book covers rehabilitation and therapeutics topics, social robotics in the healthcare domain, and emerging technologies. The contents are organized along three principal directions. Rehabilitation forms the initial part, including challenges from the multidisciplinary nature of this domain, and current and prospective examples. A second direction points to the importance of having simulation tools where to train the mobility of an endorobot. The third direction focus on social robots, with a rehabilitation flavor, but also aiming at edutainment activities for children in hospitals.

The authors in this collective have backgrounds ranging from Engineering to Medicine and from Academia to field work and research. The materials in the book result, directly or indirectly, from their professional experiences, and from European and National R&D Projects, in which the authors have been involved.

The book aims at an audience deeply interested in field robotics in Healthcare and with the social concerns about the role of robotics in promoting well-being. The chapters are not overly technical. The challenges, as the case of privacy constraints in social robots, or as connecting a diversity of disciplines, are presented using an accessible language.