TUNG WAH COLLEGE

NUR1403 Introduction to Health Informatics

Robotics in Healthcare

Introduction & Objectives

Nowadays, robotics is comprehensively used in healthcare field because of its nature of
repetitive, precise, and monotonous functioning, relieving healthcare professionals’ workload
and improving the accuracy of clinical tasks.

Please watch the following video on a socially assistive robot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sobjkWJq3I

Through this tutorial, you will understand how the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) can be
applied to socially assistive robot. The same concept can also be applied to other types of
robotics applied to the healthcare field, such as surgical robotic system, medical laboratory
robotic system, exoskeleton, and mobile robots. Students can search for the relevant cases
and ask the same question set in this tutorial as an exercise.

Submission
Students are required to answer the MC quiz in the Blackboard directly.

Main theme
Socially assistive robots (SARs) are more and more popular for use in assisting execution of
care plans. One of the beneficial targets is patients with dementia. Take Aibo as an example.

(www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/01/sony-aibo-ai-robotic-dog-back-from-dead)

Mr. Kevin LUK (2022)

1. Give THREE examples of sensors on SARs for data input, and state ONE use of
EACH sensor on SARs.

2. Is it suitable to adopt pure KB AI for SARs? Provide your justifications.

No,KB AI cannot handle social interactions, in the form of images,videos and audios effectively and efficiently

3. Consider the following scenario involving a SAR and a patient with dementia, Cathy:

Cathy wanders in a park with a socially assistive robot.

Cathy: I'm lost and don’t know how to go home. Where are we now?
Robot: (plays a song and dances, and the words in the song do not answer the question)

Suggest FOUR possible reasons for the inappropriate behaviour of the robot, and give
ONE solution for EACH problem. (No repeated solution.)

- End -

Mr. Kevin LUK (2022)