Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Robots Against Infectious Diseases : A Technologically Grounded, Human-Centered Exploration

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/zc77st167

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • Robots have the potential to protect health care workers, provide patient care, and ultimately save lives in infectious disease outbreaks. Nevertheless, infectious disease outbreak scenarios present unique technological and social challenges for robotics. This work explores what robots can and should do in the fight against infectious diseases. We present two major contributions, each of which is a starting point for answering these larger questions about robots and infectious disease outbreaks. First, a real-time contamination tracking and modeling system for robotic health care support is demonstrated and evaluated. The system models contamination of the environment and people, directs decontamination efforts of a simulated scrubber robot, and alerts users when nearing contaminated areas. The transmission model design choices are discussed, as based on Ebola virus disease,and the system is evaluated against the spread of a physical substance. This system, the first of its kind, would allow medical teams to take appropriate actions to carefully enter, avoid, or decontaminate contaminated areas, reducing infection risk for themselves and their patients. Second, three hypotheses relating to patients' comfort and trust of a proposed teleoperated robotic solution are tested. Human participants lay in a simulated Ebola treatment unit while a human-sized robot performed tasks in the space. The patient's visibility of the operator was altered based on two conditions, full visibility and no visibility. Our findings suggest patients trust the robot teleoperator more when they can see the teleoperator. This yields guidance for how to design future robotic treatment units and raises questions for envisioned telepresence medical systems.
License
Resource Type
Date Available
Date Issued
Degree Level
Degree Name
Degree Field
Degree Grantor
Commencement Year
Advisor
Committee Member
Academic Affiliation
Non-Academic Affiliation
Subject
Rights Statement
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language
Replaces

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details KraftKoryE2016.pdf 2017-08-16 Public Download