TELESKOOP - Telerobotic systems against the care crisis

How can the advancing nursing emergency be countered? The answer provided by the TELESKOOP project is "robotic helpers in the home - enabled by telepresence and cooperative regulation". In the project, which is funded by the Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the innBW Institute FZI Research Center for Information Technology is cooperating with the Munich-based telerobotics start-up Devanthro - the Robody Company and Charité Berlin. Human-like telerobotic systems called Robodies will be developed, which will be controlled using "shared control" methods. Nurses will be able to control the Robodies using an intuitive interface based on augmented reality technologies. This makes customized care on demand possible. It is also intended to relieve the mental and physical strain on nursing staff. The robodies come from Devanthro, and the FZI, with its many years of research experience in the fields of robotics, medicine and geriatrics, is supporting their development.

The remote control of care is not new in itself, however, the previous control via joysticks is very inconvenient and therefore could not establish itself. In TELESKOOP, VR technology is used for control instead, which enables immersion in the situation on site and thus also better situational awareness.

Currently, the research project, which started in October 2021, is conducting interviews with stakeholders to collect relevant use cases for the Robodies. Later, the Robodies will be used with patients who live at home and receive outpatient care. The registered needs will then be directly incorporated into further development.

Project website: https://www.interaktive-technologien.de/projekte/teleskoop

Picture: Devanthro