Spoke leader: UNIPI
Spoke coordinator: Prof. Vincenzo Ferrari (UNIPI)
Affiliated partners: UNIFI, UNISI, SSSA, Medea, Orthokey, IUVO, Qbrobotics, Wearable Robotics, WEART.
Only in the last year, researchers affiliated with universities and university hospitals in Tuscany have produced about130 high-quality scientific papers (source: Scopus) with the aim of advancing the technological state-of-the-art and leveraging the production of cutting-edge devices and systems in the field of robotics and automation for healthcare. Spoke 9: Robotics and Automation for Health fits perfectly into this context and and shares the same goals. It involves indeed UNIFI, UNIPI, UNISI, and SSSA, whose researchers are naturally connected and already work sinergically on several regional, national and international research projects. Spoke 9 also involves several hospitals and clinics in the area, all of which have a vocation for technology and already employ a large vast number of robotics devices both for clinical and research purposes. Careggi University Hospital in Florence, for example, employs robots in many specialties, such as urology, general surgery and orthopedics. In addition, Spoke 9 involves surgeons from the Clinical Center of Robotic Surgery located at the Cisanello University Hospital in Pisa, which ranks among the first places on the international scene, and is one of the few clinical reference centers in Europe accredited for robotic surgical mentoring and proctoring, and ENT and maxillofacial surgeons from the University Hospital in Siena.
Spoke 9 is not limited exclusively to the surgical area, but it also involves the rehabilitation and physiotherapy area: UNIPI’s School of Riabilitation Science and physiotherapists from UNIFI and UNISI also participate in the project. They have already conducted several clinical trials with robotic rehabilitation devices, with multiannual collaboration with the robotic university R&D teams, as reflected in the existance of several joint interdisciplinary laboratories.
This critical mass of researchers in Tuscany has generated over time a significant number of successful high-tech innovative enterprises, often spin-offs of Tuscany main universities, operating in the area of rehabilitation and healthcare. There are about 140 small companies that industrially implement the results of scientific and technological academic research in this area. Spoke 9 involves 6 of them: Orthokey, Medea, IUVO, Qbrobotics, Wearable Robotics, and WEART.
This Ecosystem composed of academic, clinical, and industrial parntern from Tuscany has already been cooperating for some time for scientific advancment in the field of robotics applied to health, from the conception and definition if entirely new robotic solutions to the in-vivo testing on humans. Spoke 9 aims to leverage the potentialities of this Ecosystem, enhancing its impact by building on the peculiarities of robotic and automation in healthcare, and smart systems for clinical use.
Spoke 9 is divided into 3 sub-projects, which identify the 3 main areas of focus:
– Sub-project 1: Clinical Robotics and Smart Systems.
– Sub-project 2: Assistive and Rehabilitations Robotics and Smart Devices.
– Sub-project 3: Healthcare Automation.