10027103Interdisciplinary centre for the commercialisation and deployment of service robotics technologies in health and social careClosedSmall Business Research InitiativeISCFIn order for service robots to be successfully deployed in health and social care, proof of their operational safety and efficacy is required at multiple levels - from safe navigation in unstructured spaces, to safe human-robot interaction and reliable adaptation to new information. Proving reliability of such complex systems in the presence of multiple human users and real-world environments is an essential requirement. Our project will produce a comprehensive specification for a test bed modeled as a living lab based drawn from working through specific service robot use-cases which capture multiple perspectives and contexts. The resulting test bed specification will provide a template and framework for a flexible instrumented space that will enable validation and benchmarking in different scenarios, specifically considering operation in a range of home, community and hospital environments where the end-users interacting with these are likely to have a varying sensory, cognitive and mobility impairments. A living lab test bed facility needs to integrate with a range of community, primary, secondary health and social care provisions which is fundamental to accelerating the progression of prototypes developed in the laboratory into working products. In this scoping study we will determine the key resources required to set up and run a Service Robotics Living Lab Test Bed as a sustainable business that will provide facilities for developers to access domain expertise from interdisciplinary teams comprising clinicians, carers, therapists, user experience designers, health economists and business experts. The team will define processes for conducting acceptance testing with end-users in a range of socioeconomic and lived experience contexts. The aim will be to realise a specification for a unique proving ground for service robots that ensures adoption with user testimonials of efficacy, as well as clinical, regulatory and health economic evidence. This project will result in an implementation-ready specification for a living lab test bed, together with a framework to enable realisation of a clear process for testing service robots for regulatory compliance, human-factors analysis, benchmarking and generating value propositions to facilitate adoption. Using the living lab test bed, service robot developers will be able to ensure that their products are market ready. This work will build on the expertise of the Centre for Healthcare Equipment and Technology Adoption, and the CoBot Make Space at the University of Nottingham.