EMERGENCE: Tackling Frailty - Facilitating the Emergence of Healthcare Robots from Labs into Service
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: School of Computer Science
Abstract
The EMERGENCE network aims to create a sustainable eco-system of researchers, businesses, end-users, health and social care commissioners and practitioners, policy makers and regulatory bodies in order to build knowledge and capability needed to enable healthcare robots to support people living with frailty in the community.
By adopting a person-centred approach to developing healthcare robotics technology we seek to improve the quality of life and independence of older people at risk of, and living with frailty, whilst helping to contain spiralling care costs. Individuals with frailty have different needs but, commonly, assistance is needed in activities related to mobility, self-care and domestic life, social activities and relationships. Healthcare can be enhanced by supporting people to better self-manage the conditions resulting from frailty, and improving information and data flow between individuals and healthcare practitioners, enabling more timely interventions.
Providing cost-effective and high-quality support for an aging population is a high priority issue for the government. The lack of adequate social care provisions in the community and funding cuts have added to the pressures on an already overstretched healthcare system. The gaps in ability to deliver the requisite quality of care, in the face of a shrinking care workforce, have been particularly exposed during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
Healthcare robots are increasingly recognised as solutions in helping people improve independent living, by having the ability to offer physical assistance as well as supporting complex self-management and healthcare tasks when integrated with patient data. The EMERGENCE network will foster and facilitate innovative research and development of healthcare robotic solutions so that they can be realised as pragmatic and sustainable solutions providing personalised, affordable and inclusive health and social care in the community.
We will work with our clinical partners and user groups to translate the current health and social care challenges in assessing, reducing and managing frailty into a set of clear and actionable requirements that will inspire novel research and enable engineers to develop appropriate healthcare robotics solutions.
We will also establish best practice guidelines for informing the design and development of healthcare robotics solutions, addressing assessment, reduction and self-management of frailty and end-user interactions for people with age-related sensory, physical and cognitive impairments. This will help the UK develop cross-cutting research capabilities in ethical design, evaluation and production of healthcare robots.
To enable the design and evaluation of healthcare robotic solutions we will utilize the consortium's living lab test beds. These include the Assisted Living Studio in the Bristol Robotics Lab covering the South West, the National Robotarium in Edinburgh together with the Health Innovation South East Scotland's Midlothian test bed, the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre and HomeLab in Sheffield, and the Robot House at the University of Hertfordshire covering the South East. Up to 10 funded feasibility studies will drive co-designed, high quality research that will lead to technologies capable of transforming community health and care.
The network will also establish safety and regulatory requirements to ensure that healthcare robotic solutions can be easily deployed and integrated as part of community-based frailty care packages.
In addition, we will identify gaps in the skills set of carers and therapists that might prevent them from using robotic solutions effectively and inform the development of training content to address these gaps. This will foster the regulatory, political and commercial environments and the workforce skills needed to make the UK a global leader in the use of robotics to support the government's ageing society grand challenge.
By adopting a person-centred approach to developing healthcare robotics technology we seek to improve the quality of life and independence of older people at risk of, and living with frailty, whilst helping to contain spiralling care costs. Individuals with frailty have different needs but, commonly, assistance is needed in activities related to mobility, self-care and domestic life, social activities and relationships. Healthcare can be enhanced by supporting people to better self-manage the conditions resulting from frailty, and improving information and data flow between individuals and healthcare practitioners, enabling more timely interventions.
Providing cost-effective and high-quality support for an aging population is a high priority issue for the government. The lack of adequate social care provisions in the community and funding cuts have added to the pressures on an already overstretched healthcare system. The gaps in ability to deliver the requisite quality of care, in the face of a shrinking care workforce, have been particularly exposed during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
Healthcare robots are increasingly recognised as solutions in helping people improve independent living, by having the ability to offer physical assistance as well as supporting complex self-management and healthcare tasks when integrated with patient data. The EMERGENCE network will foster and facilitate innovative research and development of healthcare robotic solutions so that they can be realised as pragmatic and sustainable solutions providing personalised, affordable and inclusive health and social care in the community.
We will work with our clinical partners and user groups to translate the current health and social care challenges in assessing, reducing and managing frailty into a set of clear and actionable requirements that will inspire novel research and enable engineers to develop appropriate healthcare robotics solutions.
We will also establish best practice guidelines for informing the design and development of healthcare robotics solutions, addressing assessment, reduction and self-management of frailty and end-user interactions for people with age-related sensory, physical and cognitive impairments. This will help the UK develop cross-cutting research capabilities in ethical design, evaluation and production of healthcare robots.
To enable the design and evaluation of healthcare robotic solutions we will utilize the consortium's living lab test beds. These include the Assisted Living Studio in the Bristol Robotics Lab covering the South West, the National Robotarium in Edinburgh together with the Health Innovation South East Scotland's Midlothian test bed, the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre and HomeLab in Sheffield, and the Robot House at the University of Hertfordshire covering the South East. Up to 10 funded feasibility studies will drive co-designed, high quality research that will lead to technologies capable of transforming community health and care.
The network will also establish safety and regulatory requirements to ensure that healthcare robotic solutions can be easily deployed and integrated as part of community-based frailty care packages.
In addition, we will identify gaps in the skills set of carers and therapists that might prevent them from using robotic solutions effectively and inform the development of training content to address these gaps. This will foster the regulatory, political and commercial environments and the workforce skills needed to make the UK a global leader in the use of robotics to support the government's ageing society grand challenge.
Organisations
- University of Nottingham (Lead Research Organisation)
- Bristol Health Partners (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- IBM (Collaboration)
- NHS Lothian (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Johnnie Johnson Housing (Collaboration)
- BARNSLEY HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST (Collaboration)
- Skills for Care (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems CENSIS (Collaboration)
- Government of Scotland (Collaboration)
- West of England Academic Health Science Network (Collaboration)
- NORTH BRISTOL NHS TRUST (Collaboration)
- Scottish Health Innovations Ltd (SHIL) (Collaboration)
- Blackwood (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Scottish Social Services Council (Collaboration)
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Collaboration)
- Toyota Motor Corporation (Collaboration)
- North Bristol NHS Trust (Project Partner)
- Cyberselves Universal Limited (Project Partner)
- National Rehabilitation Center (Project Partner)
- Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Project Partner)
- Consequential Robotics (to be replaced) (Project Partner)
- Digital Health and Care Institute (Project Partner)
- The Medical Device (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- PAL Robotics (Project Partner)
- Johnnie Johnson Housing and Astraline (Project Partner)
- University of British Columbia (Project Partner)
- Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (Project Partner)
- InnoScot Health (Project Partner)
Publications
Aitsam M
(2022)
Neuromorphic Computing for Interactive Robotics: A Systematic Review
in IEEE Access
Di Nuovo A
(2023)
How can Biomedical Engineers help empower Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities? The Potential Benefits and Challenges of AI Technologies to Support Inclusivity and Transform Lives
in IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine
Fiorini L
(2022)
The VISTA datasets, a combination of inertial sensors and depth cameras data for activity recognition
in Scientific Data
Guenat S
(2022)
Meeting sustainable development goals via robotics and autonomous systems.
in Nature communications
Marchang J
(2022)
Assistive Multimodal Robotic System (AMRSys): Security and Privacy Issues, Challenges, and Possible Solutions
in Applied Sciences
| Title | EMERGENCE Conceptual Artwork |
| Description | Following the WP1 Workshop in Sheffield, the EMERGENCE network employed the graphic facilitation services of Sam Church Illustration to produce conceptual artwork that encapsulated the initial thoughts and ideas that participants had around the opportunities for the use of assistive robotics to address the challenges faced by those living with frailty. The artwork produced depicted 5 concepts that had been suggested by participants and included a rough sketch to give a suggestion of potential size and shape along with annotations with suggested potential functionality. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The resulting artwork was used within the WP1 "Define" workshops as a conversation starter to give participants the opportunity to discuss their feelings about each concept with a view to discussing more generally the challenges that exist to the acceptability and deployment of assistive robotic solutions into people's daily lives. |
| Title | EMERGENCE Discover Workshop Illustrations |
| Description | The EMERGENCE network employed the graphic facilitation services of Sam Church Illustration during each of the discovery workshops that took place as part of the WP1 activities. Sam attended each workshop in person, listening in on discussions and taking notes to facilitate the production of artwork which translated the comments and ideas of the workshop participants into drawings with a distinctive style which encapsulate key points of conversation whilst conveying a sense of the emotions and feelings behind the words, something which is often lost with traditional transcriptions. Following each workshop, Sam produced a set of summary drawings highlighting the top themes emerging from the discussions around the challenges faced by older people living with frailty using phrases taken directly from participants' dialogues with accompanying imagery. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The resulting artwork was used in presentations at subsequent events to underpin the analysis of the outcomes from WP1 activities and to increase awareness around the challenges to be addressed via the Robotics for Frailty Challenge. The artwork was also made available to participants of the co-creation methodology workshops where it sparked conversations and ideas that led to new collaborations, initial proposals and full proposals being submitted to the network for consideration for funding. |
| Description | Update of the BSI 8611-2023 - Robots and robotic devices - Ethical design and application of robots and robotic systems |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| URL | https://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/projects/2022-00279#/section |
| Description | Blackwood Innovate UK Robotics - Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) |
| Amount | £154,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 13068 |
| Organisation | Research Councils UK (RCUK) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2022 |
| End | 09/2024 |
| Description | Facilitating health and wellbeing by developing systems for early recognition of urinary tract infections - Feather |
| Amount | £1,100,918 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/W031493/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2022 |
| End | 08/2025 |
| Description | I'M-ACTIVE : Intelligent Multimodal Assessment and Coaching Through Identification of Vulnerabilities in older pEople |
| Amount | £400,481 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/W031809/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 06/2024 |
| Title | Use of personas for co-production |
| Description | We have generated, based on existing evidence-based sources, a set of 10 personas specifically intended for participatory co-production activities. These personas depict, in easy-to-digest formats, the backgrounds, health statuses and characteristics of (fictitious) older people who are pre-frail but managing; who are vulnerable or living with mild frailty; and who are living with moderate to severe frailty. This range of personas allows their use in different contexts and for different purposes. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The personas were validated by the project steering group and subsequently used successfully in a series of co-production workshops with older people, their carers and other health and care professionals. The personas will be made publicly available for other research purposes through the project website. |
| Description | ADVANCED CARE RESEARCH CENTRE, University of Edinburgh |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Department | Usher Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Steering Group for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions; Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event; The ACRC Implementation Lead (Health & Social Care Data Driven Innovation) has contributed to advertise and attended WP1 and WP4 workshops. He also reviewed some of the proposals that were submitted to the network. The two EMERGENCE WP1 workshops organised by Heriot-Watt in July 2022 (http://care.hw.ac.uk/blog/2022/08/11/News.html) were hosted at the University of Edinburgh with the support of the Advanced Care Research Centre. |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Barnsley Assistive Technology Team |
| Organisation | Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022) ; Co-creation Methodology Workshop (08/11/2022) A representative of Barnsley Assistive Technology Team sits on the EMERGENCE Network Advisory Board giving input into the selection of pilot projects. |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Blackwood Group |
| Organisation | Blackwood |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following event: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022); WP1 Workshop activity (04/07/2022 and 15/07/2022) Assistance with recruitment to WP1 Workshop activities in Edinburgh Assistance with recruitment to Steering Group Supported initial proposal for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Bristol Health Partners |
| Organisation | Bristol Health Partners |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022); Co-creation Methodology Workshop (14/11/2022) A representative of Bristol Health Partners sits on the EMERGENCE Network Advisory Board giving input into the selection of pilot projects |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | CENSIS |
| Organisation | Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems CENSIS |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions(12/01/2022) |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | DHCIC |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022) |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | IBM |
| Organisation | IBM |
| Department | IBM UK Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022) A representative of IBM sits on the EMERGENCE Network Advisory Board giving input into the selection of pilot projects. |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Johnnie Johnson Housing |
| Organisation | Johnnie Johnson Housing |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions(12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022); Co-creation Methodology Workshop (08/11/2022); Co-creation Workshops (13/01/2023) Assistance with recruitment to WP1 Workshops Provision of location for WP1 Workshops Support for project teams with initial and full proposals for Robotics for Frailty Challenge |
| Impact | EMERGENCE Co-Production Workshop: Discover Challenges of Assisted Daily Living (Sheffield) EMERGENCE Co-Production Workshop: Define Challenges of Assisted Daily Living (Sheffield) |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | NHS Lothian |
| Organisation | NHS Lothian |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022); Co-creation Workshop (20/01/2023). A representative of NHS Lothian sits on the EMERGENCE Network Advisory Board giving input into the selection of pilot projects. |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | North Bristol NHS Trust |
| Organisation | North Bristol NHS Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022); A representative of North Bristol NHS Trust sits on the EMERGENCE Network Advisory Board giving input into the selection of pilot projects. |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | SHIL |
| Organisation | Scottish Health Innovations Ltd (SHIL) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022) A representative of SHIL sits on the EMERGENCE Network Advisory Board giving input into the selection of pilot projects. |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) |
| Organisation | Scottish Social Services Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. SSSC have been involved in the activities of WP4 (Future care workforce skills for integration of healthcare robotics into care and support (Lead: Dr Dragone)). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions; Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event; SSSC has also helped to advertise and recruit participants from the care sector for the joint workshop the EPSRC NetworkPlus EMERGENCE organised with the Empowering Future Care Workforces project from the Trustworthy Autonomous System (TAS) network. The workshop run at Heriot-Watt University's campus in Edinburgh, on November 15th, between 10AM and 12PM. SSSC is also contributing to the design of further four workshops to identify gaps in clinical and engineering education to enable healthcare technology skills development, in conjunction with other partner organisations, including Skills for Care and NHS Health Education England and Scotland. |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Sheffield Teaching Hospitals |
| Organisation | Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board and Steering Group for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022) A representative of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals sits on the EMERGENCE Network Steering Group giving input into selection of pilot projects. |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Skills for Care |
| Organisation | Skills for Care |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions(12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022); |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Toyota |
| Organisation | Toyota Motor Corporation |
| Department | Toyota Motor Europe NV SA |
| Country | Belgium |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions (12/01/2022); Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event (28/09/2022); Co-creation Methodology Workshop (14/11/2022) A representative of Toyota Motor Europe sits on the EMERGENCE Network Advisory Board giving input into the selection of pilot projects. |
| Impact | Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | WEAHSN |
| Organisation | West of England Academic Health Science Network |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Access to research expertise. Invitations extended to all network activities and events. Invitation extended to invite a member of the organisation to sit on the Advisory Board for the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at the following events: Project Partner Introductions(12/01/2022) |
| Impact | No outputs/outcomes to date |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | 2022 International Symposium on Rehabilitation Research, South Korea |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited as a keynote speaker to give a 30 minute lecture for session 2 of the symposium program, 'Expansion of Robotic Technology from Hospitals to Homes'. The presentation included the work of the Emergence team and ongoing findings on the potential of expansion of robotic technology from hospitals to homes, with a view to promote future rehabilitation research and development of rehabilitation using assistive robots. The International Symposium on Rehabilitation Research is participated in by persons with disabilities and experts from Korea and abroad in the field of rehabilitation policy, rehabilitative health care services, and rehabilitation research, and promotes multilateral information exchange and international cooperation on promoting the health of persons with disabilities and rehabilitation research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://nrc.go.kr/eng/html/content.do?depth=n_ri&menu_cd=02_04_01 |
| Description | Assistive Robotics & AI Enabled Technologies Roundtable (Yorkshire) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A roundtable of policy makers and practitioners, as well as some industry representatives to discuss the use of robots in health and social care in Yorkshire |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Creation Workshop (Edinburgh) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The EMERGENCE team invited the members of four project teams to attend a co-creation workshop at the National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to support project teams to address issues highlighted during the review process of the initial proposals submitted to the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding call to facilitate the production of a stronger application at the full proposal stage. The workshop was facilitated by experts in grant writing GrantCraft Ltd and was designed to support the development of all initial proposals in a way that would be beneficial to all participants. The workshops were predominantly group work focused and guided participants through the components of the full proposal form to assist participants in building key messages, arguments and justifications into their projects against the funding remit. There was also a focus on the positioning of the projects in terms of how they fit into the bigger picture of each team's work, discussions about potential funding options following project completion and identification of alternative funding streams and strategies. Formal feedback from attendees was positive and full proposals were received from all of the teams attending. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Creation Workshop (Nottingham) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The EMERGENCE team invited the members of two project teams to attend a co-creation workshop at the University of Nottingham. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to support project teams to address issues highlighted during the review process of the initial proposals submitted to the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding call to facilitate the production of a stronger application at the full proposal stage. The workshop was facilitated by experts in grant writing GrantCraft Ltd and was designed to support the development of all initial proposals in a way that would be beneficial to all participants. The workshops were predominantly group work focused and guided participants through the components of the full proposal form to assist participants in building key messages, arguments and justifications into their projects against the funding remit. There was also a focus on the positioning of the projects in terms of how they fit into the bigger picture of each team's work, discussions about potential funding options following project completion and identification of alternative funding streams and strategies. Formal feedback from attendees was positive and full proposals were received from both of the teams attending. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Creation Workshop (Sheffield) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The EMERGENCE team invited the members of three project teams to attend a co-creation workshop at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to support project teams to address issues highlighted during the review process of the initial proposals submitted to the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding call to facilitate the production of a stronger application at the full proposal stage. The workshop was facilitated by experts in grant writing GrantCraft Ltd and was designed to support the development of all initial proposals in a way that would be beneficial to all participants. The workshops were predominantly group work focused and guided participants through the components of the full proposal form to assist participants in building key messages, arguments and justifications into their projects against the funding remit. There was also a focus on the positioning of the projects in terms of how they fit into the bigger picture of each team's work, discussions about potential funding options following project completion and identification of alternative funding streams and strategies. Formal feedback from attendees was positive and full proposals were received from two of the teams attending. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Methodology Workshop (Edinburgh) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A co-production methodology workshop was held as a hybrid event at the National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University and online via Microsoft Teams on 14/11/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to generate awareness of the research challenges for Robotics for Frailty and to provide opportunities for collaboration and engagement. The workshops were aimed at individuals interested in submitting proposals for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding call as well as those interested in learning more about co-creation for designing healthcare robotics solutions. Following attendance at the workshop, attendees were eligible to apply for feasibility funding via the Robotics for Frailty Challenge Call. The workshop was attended by 38 individuals with representatives from academia, industry and health care. The workshop, which was one of a series of workshops at different locations, was designed as a dynamic and interactive event in collaboration with an external facilitator to ensure consistency of experience for all participants. During the workshop, the EMERGENCE team gave updated presentations of the network aims, objectives and work to date along with an overview of findings into lived experiences of frailty, management and support. The workshop also incorporated interactive sessions to allow opportunities to network with researchers in assistive robotics and to share expertise, skills and experiences to build collaborative links with the EMERGENCE network community. Additionally, the workshop provided an opportunity to share and learn about a range of co-production and co-creation approaches from other attendees. Formal feedback was positive with attendees reporting new learning about formal methodologies for co-creation, utilisation of ideas for unconnected bids and new connections. Several of the attendees went on to submit initial proposals for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge Call. A total of 21 innovative project ideas were generated. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Methodology Workshop (Nottingham) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A co-production methodology workshop was held as a hybrid event at the University of Nottingham and online via Microsoft Teams on 03/11/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to generate awareness of the research challenges for Robotics for Frailty and to provide opportunities for collaboration and engagement. The workshops were aimed at individuals interested in submitting proposals for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding call as well as those interested in learning more about co-creation for designing healthcare robotics solutions. Following attendance at the workshop, attendees were eligible to apply for feasibility funding via the Robotics for Frailty Challenge Call. The workshop was attended by 15 individuals with representatives from academia, industry and health care. The workshop, which was one of a series of workshops at different locations, was designed as a dynamic and interactive event in collaboration with an external facilitator to ensure consistency of experience for all participants. During the workshop, the EMERGENCE team gave updated presentations of the network aims, objectives and work to date along with an overview of findings into lived experiences of frailty, management and support. The workshop also incorporated interactive sessions to allow opportunities to network with researchers in assistive robotics and to share expertise, skills and experiences to build collaborative links with the EMERGENCE network community. Additionally, the workshop provided an opportunity to share and learn about a range of co-production and co-creation approaches from other attendees. Formal feedback was positive with attendees reporting increased understanding of how robotics can support health and social care and a better insight into the work currently being done in EMERGENCE areas. Several of the attendees went on to submit initial proposals for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge Call. A total of 21 innovative project ideas were generated. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Methodology Workshop (Sheffield) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A co-production methodology workshop was held as a hybrid event at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University and online via Microsoft Teams on 08/11/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to generate awareness of the research challenges for Robotics for Frailty and to provide opportunities for collaboration and engagement. The workshops were aimed at individuals interested in submitting proposals for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding call as well as those interested in learning more about co-creation for designing healthcare robotics solutions. Following attendance at the workshop, attendees were eligible to apply for feasibility funding via the Robotics for Frailty Challenge Call. The workshop was attended by 19 individuals with representatives from academia, industry and health care. The workshop, which was one of a series of workshops at different locations, was designed as a dynamic and interactive event in collaboration with an external facilitator to ensure consistency of experience for all participants. During the workshop, the EMERGENCE team gave updated presentations of the network aims, objectives and work to date along with an overview of findings into lived experiences of frailty, management and support. The workshop also incorporated interactive sessions to allow opportunities to network with researchers in assistive robotics and to share expertise, skills and experiences to build collaborative links with the EMERGENCE network community. Additionally, the workshop provided an opportunity to share and learn about a range of co-production and co-creation approaches from other attendees. Formal feedback was positive with attendees finding the event well delivered, well organised and informative with appropriate and interesting content. Several of the attendees went on to submit initial proposals for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge Call. A total of 21 innovative project ideas were generated. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Workshop: Define Challenges of Assisted Daily Living (Sheffield) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A co-production workshop was held at Scampton Lodge, a retirement housing facility in Sheffield managed by project partners Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust, on 08/07/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to identify and evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of potential health technology solutions which address the barriers identified in the previous workshop. Participants were recruited from two residential independent living facilities with the help of project partners Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust. In total, 5 residents and 2 carers attended the workshop which was facilitated by 4 members of the EMERGENCE team. The workshop comprised of a series of discussions for which the participants were split into two groups. Participants were asked to consider a series of conceptual artworks depicting potential assistive robotics solutions which had been produced by illustrator Sam Church in response to the outputs from the previous workshop. Participants were encouraged to explore their reactions to these concepts and to discuss the practicalities of each in terms of any concerns they might have about adopting something similar into their own lives. Through this, the team sought to identify barriers that exist to the deployment of assistive robotics solutions for this cohort. All discussions were recorded with key points being captured on post it notes throughout the workshop. The analysis of the workshop outcomes were used to inform the priority areas and requirements for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding calls. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Workshop: Define Challenges of Self-Monitoring of Frailty (Edinburgh) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A co-production workshop was held at the University of Edinburgh on 15/07/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to work with active pre-frail older adults and healthcare professionals with experience in self-management and prevention of frailty to identify and evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of potential health technology solutions addressing the issues identified in the previous workshop. Participants were recruited from healthcare settings, regional residential housing associations and the general public. In total, 11 participants attended comprising 3 healthcare professionals and 8 older adults. The workshop was comprised of three main sessions. During the first and second session, participants were split into two groups and asked to consider a series of conceptual artworks depicting potential assistive robotics solutions which had been produced by illustrator Sam Church in response to the outputs from a previous workshop. Participants were encouraged to explore their reactions to these concepts and to discuss the practicalities of each in terms of any concerns they might have about adopting something similar into their own lives. Through this, the team sought to identify barriers that exist to the deployment of assistive robotics solutions for this cohort. The final session comprised of a robot showcase where a number of robotic devices were demonstrated to participants. All discussions were recorded with key points being captured on post it notes throughout the workshop. The analysis of the workshop outcomes were used to inform the priority areas and requirements for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding calls. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Workshop: Discover & Define Challenges of Assisted Daily Living (Hertfordshire) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A co-production workshop was held at the University of Hertfordshire College Lane Campus, on 26/09/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to explore the experiences and aspirations of people with lived experience of frailty and their carers in relation to assisted daily living with frailty and identify and evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of potential health technology solutions which address the barriers identified. Participants were recruited from regional residential independent living facilities. In total, 4 residents and 4 carers attended the workshop which was facilitated by 4 members of the EMERGENCE team. The workshop comprised of two main discussion sessions with the participants split into two groups. During the first session, participants were asked to consider a number of fictional personae living with frailty and discuss the challenges they felt would be faced under various categories of daily living such as, for example, getting out and about, cooking, cleaning, shopping and bathing and encouraged to explore how technology might provide solutions to these challenges. The second session introduced the concept of assistive robotics with a number of current assistive devices being demonstrated to participants. Participants were asked to discuss whether they felt that these had potential for addressing challenges for daily living for people living with frailty, whether it was something they would use themselves and their thoughts on any barriers they felt existed to the practicalities of using them within their own residential settings. Participants were also asked to consider a series of conceptual artworks depicting potential assistive robotics solutions which had been produced by illustrator Sam Church in response to the outputs from a previous workshop. Participants were encouraged to explore their reactions to these concepts and to discuss the practicalities of each in terms of any concerns they might have about adopting something similar into their own lives. Through this, the team sought to identify barriers that exist to the deployment of assistive robotics solutions for this cohort. All discussions were recorded with key points being captured on post it notes throughout the workshop. The workshop was also attended by an illustrator, Sam Church, who took notes and produced summary artwork to capture the discussion in a way that maintained elements of expression, emotion and feeling. The analysis of the workshop outcomes were used to inform the priority areas and requirements for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding calls. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Workshop: Discover & Define Challenges of Monitoring Frailty (Nottingham) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A co-production workshop was held as a hybrid event both in person at the Postgraduate Medical Education Centre in Nottingham and online via Microsoft Teams, on 15/09/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to further explore the experiences and aspirations of healthcare professionals in relation to the pathways for frailty support and the ways in which frailty is monitored. Additionally, there was a second focus on identifying and evaluating the acceptability and feasibility of potential healthcare technology solutions associated with the issues identified by healthcare professionals. Participants were initially asked to consider the patients they came into contact with as healthcare professionals and discuss common problems they saw as being associated with frailty, the problems seen most often in patients, difficulties faced on discharge and the symptoms that are hardest to manage, and why. Following this, participants were then asked to consider and discuss existing technology in use within their workplaces and the opportunities they felt existed for the development of new technologies. All discussions were recorded with key points being captured on post it notes throughout the workshop. The analysis of the workshop outcomes were used to inform the priority areas and requirements for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding calls. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Workshop: Discover Challenges of Assisted Daily Living (Sheffield) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A co-production workshop was held at Scampton Lodge, a retirement housing facility in Sheffield managed by project partners Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust, on 24/06/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to explore the experiences and aspirations of people with lived experience of frailty and their carers in relation to assisted daily living with frailty. Participants were recruited from two residential independent living facilities with the help of project partners Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust. In total, 8 residents and 1 carer attended the workshop which was facilitated by 4 members of the EMERGENCE team. The workshop was comprised of three main sessions. During the first session, participants were split into two groups and asked to consider two fictional personae living with frailty and discuss the challenges they felt would be faced under various categories of daily living such as, for example, getting out and about, cooking, cleaning, shopping and bathing. The second session was a repetition of the first with a different set of personae and participants were encouraged to explore how technology might provide solutions to these challenges. The third session introduced the concept of assistive robotics. Participants were shown a series of short videos of current technology on the market and asked to discuss whether they felt that these had potential for addressing challenges for daily living for people living with frailty, whether it was something they would use themselves and their thoughts on any barriers they felt existed to the practicalities of using them within their own residential settings. All discussions were recorded with key points being captured on post it notes throughout the workshop. The workshop was also attended by an illustrator, Sam Church, who took notes and produced summary artwork to capture the discussion in a way that maintained elements of expression, emotion and feeling. In addition, the illustrator also produced conceptual artwork depicting a number of potential assistive robotic solutions suggested by the workshop participants. The analysis of the workshop outcomes were used to inform the priority areas and requirements for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding calls. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Workshop: Discover Challenges of Monitoring Frailty (Nottingham) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A co-production workshop was held as a hybrid event both in person at the University of Nottingham and online via Microsoft Teams, on 26/07/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to discover the experiences and aspirations of healthcare professionals in relation to the pathways for frailty support and the ways in which frailty is monitored. Participants were recruited from the NHS with the help of project partners from the Department of Healthcare of Older People at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham. 4 participants attended in total and the workshop was facilitated by 3 members of the EMERGENCE team. During the workshop, participants were initially asked to consider two fictional personae living with frailty and briefly discuss the challenges they felt would be faced under various categories of daily living such as, for example, getting out and about, cooking, cleaning, shopping and bathing. Following on from this, participants were then asked to consider, in their roles as healthcare professionals working with people living with frailty, the impact of what they typically see emerging as a result of these challenges, and where the biggest difficulties might lie for these individuals and healthcare professionals in supporting them. All discussions were recorded with key points being captured on post it notes throughout the workshop. The workshop was also attended by an illustrator, Sam Church, who took notes and produced summary artwork to capture the discussion in a way that maintained elements of expression, emotion and feeling. The analysis of the workshop outcomes were used to inform the priority areas and requirements for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding calls. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Co-Production Workshop: Discover Challenges of Self-Monitoring of Frailty (Edinburgh) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A co-production workshop was held at the University of Edinburgh on 04/07/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the workshop was to work with active pre-frail older adults and healthcare professionals with experience in self-management and prevention of frailty to discover their experiences and aspirations with a focus on NHS England's Practical Guide to Healthy Ageing. Participants were recruited from academia, healthcare settings, regional residential housing associations and the general public. In total, 13 participants attended comprising 2 occupational therapists, 1 telecare admin, 1 carer, 1 academic and 8 older adults. The workshop was comprised of three main sessions. During the first and second session, participants were split into two groups and asked to consider a fictional persona living with frailty and explore what issues they might face when following the NHS guidelines. The third session introduced the concept of assistive robotic technologies, giving an overview of possible roles of robots with demonstrations of cognitive, physical and social assistive robots. Participants were then split into breakout groups again in order to explore opportunities for technology and/or robotic automation. All discussions were recorded with key points being captured on post it notes throughout the workshop. The workshop was also attended by an illustrator, Sam Church, who took notes and produced summary artwork to capture the discussion in a way that maintained elements of expression, emotion and feeling. The analysis of the workshop outcomes were used to inform the priority areas and requirements for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding calls. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Joint Workshop with the EPSRC Trustworthy and Autonomous Systems Hub pump-priming project (Edinburgh) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The EMERGENCE network hosted a workshop at the National Robotarium on 15/11/2022 in conjunction with the EPSRC Trustworthy and Autonomous Systems Hub pump-priming project, Empowering Future Care Workforces. The aim was to understand how health and social care professionals can benefit from using assistive robotics on their own terms. Empowering health and social care professionals through digital technologies has long been a goal in health and care policy. As governments invest in post-pandemic digital transformation, ensuring workers are empowered and not excluded by technology is more urgent than ever. The focus of the workshop was scoping capabilities to leverage assistive robotics through co-design. As such the participants were given the opportunity to observe and interact with a range of different assistive robots in a smart home environment and provided with scenarios to help elicit a deeper understanding of what skills and training would be need for healthcare professionals to leverage emerging robotics solutions. The healthcare professionals attending were in turn able to gain insight into issues such as what the impact of these technologies will be on their responsibilities, training needs, organizational structure, and working conditions. The findings are informing the work on work package 4 and will inform ongoing work on developing a set of online resources with CPD material for health and social care staff. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EMERGENCE Joint Workshop with the EPSRC Trustworthy and Autonomous Systems Hub pump-priming project (Nottingham) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The EMERGENCE network hosted a workshop at the Cobot Maker Space at Nottingham University on 07/11/2022 in conjunction with the EPSRC Trustworthy and Autonomous Systems Hub pump-priming project, Empowering Future Care Workforces. The aim was to understand how health and social care professionals can benefit from using assistive robotics on their own terms. Empowering health and social care professionals through digital technologies has long been a goal in health and care policy. As governments invest in post-pandemic digital transformation, ensuring workers are empowered and not excluded by technology is more urgent than ever. The focus of the workshop was scoping capabilities to leverage assistive robotics through co-design. As such the participants were given the opportunity to observe and interact with a range of different assistive robots in a smart home environment and provided with scenarios to help elicit a deeper understanding of what skills and training would be needed for healthcare professionals to leverage emerging robotics solutions. The healthcare professionals attending were in turn able to gain insight into issues such as what the impact of these technologies will be on their responsibilities, training needs, organizational structure, and working conditions. The findings are informing the work on work package 4 and will inform ongoing work on developing a set of online resources with CPD material for health and social care staff. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | IROS 2022 Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The EMERGENCE network hosted a half-day workshop at IROS 2022 in Kyoto, Japan in conjunction with the EPSRC Trustworthy and Autonomous Systems Hub pump-priming project Empowering Future Care Workforces project. The workshop focused on assistive robots in the real world and supporting healthcare professionals to leverage autonomous assistive devices. The objectives of the workshop were to: Review how designers and operators can expose machine decision making to verify and validate safe operations in dynamic care environments. Review how diverse stakeholders can best inform the creation and revision of standards such as ISO 13482 on personal care robots which at present does not consider issues of verification and validation in the face of changing patient needs, for instance. Assess how we can put measures of wellbeing at the heart of evidencing the efficacy of RAS to systematically assess the wellbeing implications of assistive robotics on health and care professionals, and the people they care for. Review how roboticists and care professionals can be empowered to overcome already existing inequalities in the care landscape that mean that marginalised people who most need care are often excluded from benefitting from emerging technologies and services. Identify what kind of interdisciplinary collaborations, research infrastructures and innovation policies are needed to support this work. Identify how robotics research can overcome issues of local specificity, safely adapting emerging RAS in care to best suit complex local settings where care actually happens. The workshop was carefully designed to encourage collaborative discussion, co-learning and possibilities for agenda setting and future collaborations through a mixture of creative small group activities alongside five invited talks, research reports and poster sessions. During the workshop, participants listened to the following talks: "The problematic marriage between care and technology" - Prof. Luc de Witte, Professor of Technology for Health Care, Technology for Health Care Group, The Hague University of Applied Sciences. "Assistive Technologies (from ICT to AAR)" - Professor Tomohiro Shibata, Professor of Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyutech, Japan "Barriers and opportunities for adoption of robotics in healthcare" - Prof. Nigel Harris, Visiting Professor, University of the West of England and the Department of Health at the University of Bath "Design and Control of Wearable Robotics for Real-World Applications" - Dr. Brokoslaw Laschowski, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada "Personal Care Robots for frailty and neurodegenerative diseases" - Prof Filippo Cavello, Professor in Biomedical Robotics and Head of BioRobotics Lab, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence This workshop included a unique contribution from healthcare professionals and end-users on their lived experiences, highlighting the barriers and opportunities. These videos provided by our external stakeholders were used to prompt reflection and ideation for solutions and approaches to address the issues highlighted. These videos have been made available on the Emergence website and continue to be used. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.emergencerobotics.net/events/iros-2022-workshop |
| Description | Lectures @ PERSEO Summer School |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The 2022 Summer School on Service-Based and Cloud Robotics was organised by the PERSEO ETN European Doctoral Training Network on Personalised Robotics. The school will consist of lectures from the international experts in the field. Lectures sparked questions and discussions increasing the knowledge and interest of the PG students in the topics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://perseo-summer-school.github.io/ |
| Description | Participant feedback visits |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of early care robot concepts at 2 coffee mornings with sheltered housing residents and care staff |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation at the HONDA HARU Fest |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Haru Fest 2022 Recently Tokyo hosted to the inaugural Haru Fest 2022! Attended by over 100 academics, engineers, and writers from around the world, Haru Fest was an opportunity not only to celebrate the social robots of Honda Research Institute Japan's, but also for the academics and professionals who designed Haru to share their work and discuss the future of social robots. Haru Fest's theme was empathy, integration, and diversity, and it focused on issues in empathy, bond and trust with social robots and their integration into society. It took place over 2 days jam-packed with inspiring invited talks, insightful panel sessions, and informative flash talks featuring visionaries from industry and academia. Last but not least, Haru Fest featured awe-inspiring demonstrations of capabilities from both Honda's pioneering social robot, ASIMO, and from Haru itself. Attendees left feeling knowledgeable about, connected to, and optimistic about Haru's social robotics community. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://mypersonalrobots.org/events/2022/10/29/haru-fest-2022-a-gathering-of-the-tribes |
| Description | Presentation to company Board |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to the Board of a telecare company. Raised awareness of the state of care robotics and of participatory research methods |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Project Partner Introductions Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | This event was held online for the purpose of building connections and working relationships with the partners that had conveyed their support for the EMERGENCE network project. It was attended by the EMERGENCE project team and representatives from 17 separate project partner institutions/companies. The EMERGENCE project team gave a presentation that covered details of their research labs and test beds, an overview of the EMERGENCE project aims and objectives and details pertaining to the work packages and associated activities planned. Each project partner contributed by introducing themselves, their backgrounds and their planned contribution to the network. This was the first opportunity for project partners to meet in the context of the EMERGENCE work and the event sparked questions and discussions around the EMERGENCE priorities from a variety of perspectives bringing clinical partners, healthcare service providers, healthcare innovation services, care workforce representatives, international academic partners and technology companies together for the first time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Robotics for Frailty Challenge Launch Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A challenge launch event was held as a hybrid event at the University of Nottingham and online via Microsoft Teams on 28/09/2022. The focus and intended purpose of the event was to introduce attendees to the EMERGENCE network, engage with talks from invited speakers, share an overview of the emerging research outputs from our work package 1 activities and to announce the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding call. Participants listened to a number of excellent key speakers speak from a variety of perspectives on the challenges around robotic assistive systems and frailty with particular reference to the challenges that exist for deployment of existing technology into service within the homes of those living with frailty. Presentation slides and recordings from all key speakers and project team presentations given during the event are available at the URL given below. Key speakers for the event included: Philippa Hemmings, Head of Healthcare Technologies, EPSRC Dr. Elizabeth Mestheneos, Administrative Board and Founder Member, 50+Hellas Mark Van Loock, Technology Manager Robotics, Toyota Motor Europe Michael Gray, Implementation Lead (Health & Social Care Data Driven Innovation) at Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh Sara Cooper, Robotics Software Engineer, PAL Robotics Following the talks, the EMERGENCE team shared the emerging themes from the outputs of work package 1 workshop activities and announced the Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding call to fund research-driven proposals that engage with these findings and advance the state of the art of robotics towards being capable of transforming community health and care, with an emphasis on real-world adoption and deployment. Attendees were encouraged to register to attend one of a series of co-creation methodology workshops aimed at individuals who are interested in submitting proposals for the Robotics for Frailty Challenge call and also at those who are interested in learning more about co-creation for designing healthcare robotics solutions. Informal feedback from the event was positive and led to 97 registrations for attendance at our co-creation methodology workshop events. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.emergencerobotics.net/events/robotics-for-frailty-challenge |
| Description | Shonan Meeting 177: Natural Interaction with Humanoid Robots |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The group worked intensively for 4 days and explored possible challenges and jointly developed a research agenda for main research directions in the topic. The meeting establish an international collaboration for follow-up research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://shonan.nii.ac.jp/seminars/177/ |
| Description | Talk Social Applications of Multimodal Cognitive Robots |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This workshop shared synergetic contribution of different research areas e.g., Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet-of-Things (IoT), Robotics, and Social Science to develop innovative and effective research and technologies for the ageing society and assistance in general. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | The Future of Social Care Technology - Implementing Robotics & AI |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was an online event organised by Skilld for Care, Digital Social Care and the National Care Forum. Invited to give a presentation on the practical barriers and challenges of using emerging technologies in social care. Discussed the scope and work of the Emergence network and introduced the consortium members and their test beds. 6 March 2023 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future-of-social-care-technology-implementing-robotics-ai-tickets... |
| Description | Turing Knowledge Cafe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The EMERGENCE network hosted a knowledge café event in the Cobot Maker Space at the University of Nottingham on 15/09/2022 in conjunction with the Alan Turing Institute Network and the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute. The focus and intended purpose of the event was to provide opportunities for members of the general public to increase their awareness of AI in healthcare and supporting responsible research and innovation. During the event, participants were introduced to the themes of artificial intelligence and the ways in which AI models are trained and evaluated using data and how that data is collected from research participants to assist researchers in designing, programming, constructing and testing robots. A demonstration of the robots within the Cobot Maker space gave participants the opportunity to see assistive robots in action, after which they were invited to participate in a discussion on the benefits and risks of the robots, how their data is used and how GDPR, and AI regulation, and ethics attempt to minimise these risks. The workshop was also attended by an illustrator, Sam Church, who took notes and produced summary artwork to capture the discussion in a way that maintained elements of expression, emotion and feeling. The Knowledge café worked as a successful forum to help attendees understand what personal data could be collected from assistive robots and how it might be used. This in turn help them to reflect on and articulate concerns in the context of their own lived experiences, in addition to highlighting a range of other potential concerns, as well as opportunities to inform future design of ethical robots. The discussion as captured by the illustrator is being converted into an Ethical Design of Assistive Robotics Technologies card deck which will be used in subsequent workshops and activities to prompt engineers and designers to focus on specific responsible research and innovation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |