MedRob - laboratory of medical robotics

Head of the Project: Evgeni Magid

The aim of the scientific research is to develop concepts, methods, algorithms and specific technologies at the intersection of medicine, the Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics, which will help create the first robotic "smart hospital" in the Russian Federation at the University Clinic of Kazan Federal University. The idea for the study came when COVID-19 came to the Russian Federation; in the Republic of Tatarstan, some regular hospitals were quickly converted into COVID hospitals, and the contagiousness of the disease required reducing the number of contacts between people to a minimum. After studying the responses of leading scientists in the field of robotics to the catastrophic epidemic, it became obvious that only comprehensive robotization of healthcare can significantly improve safety and reduce mortality among patients and staff during epidemiological cataclysms, and will also reduce the daily workload of junior medical and auxiliary staff of hospitals. Comprehensive robotization of a medical institution involves the creation and integration into a single system of accompanying robots, disinfection robots, robots for monitoring patient health, delivery robots (medicine, food, bed linen, waste), nurse robots, social robots and informant robots, smart wheelchairs and smart medical beds, IoT camera and sensor systems, security and access control systems, and others.

To date, the study has proposed a general concept of a robotic "smart hospital" and created a virtual model of the neurorehabilitation department of the Kazan Federal University Medical Center to test the concept in a computer simulator (the virtual model was built based on drawings and on-site measurement results); developed a concept for a control system for a group of robots in a "smart hospital" and an access control system to the hospital premises, rules of behavior for robots and a number of navigation algorithms for them; developed designs for two new mobile robots ("ArtBul-2" and "ArtBul-3") to perform escort and delivery functions; created virtual models of these mobile robots and models of several hundred people with different physical parameters, which will help test the developed methods and algorithms; one robot "ArtBul-2" has already been fully assembled, and the basic software has been written and tested for it. A prototype of software with a graphical interface for controlling the "smart hospital" has also been developed, which allows setting various tasks for robots in the "smart hospital" and controlling them in real time; The prototype was tested in a computer simulator and with real robots "ArtBul-2" and the Spanish wheeled robot TiagoBase. In addition, concepts, methods and algorithms were developed to ensure human safety during joint work with robots and to integrate robots with sensor networks; some of them were programmed on real robots and tested in pilot experiments involving more than fifty student volunteers from the Institute of Information Technology and Intelligent Systems (ITIS) of Kazan Federal University. The results obtained were described in a series of scientific papers presented at leading specialized conferences on robotics and published in international journals, including several publications in journals of quartiles Q1 and Q2; more than 10 technological solutions were recorded in the form of state registration of computer programs.

Articles (selected)

[1] Magid E., Zakiev A., Tsoy T., Lavrenov R., Rizvanov A. Automating pandemic mitigation // Advanced Robotics. – 2021. – Vol. 35 (9). – p. 572-589.

[2] Safin R., Lavrenov R., Tsoy T., Magid E., Svinin M., Roy S.D., Saha S.K. Prioritizing tasks within a robotic transportation system for a smart hospital environment // Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). – 2021. – № 12998. – p. 182-193.

[3] Shafikov A., Tsoy T., Lavrenov R., Magid E., Li H., Maslak E., Schiefermeier-Mach N. Medical palpation autonomous robotic system modeling and simulation in ROS/Gazebo // Proceedings of 13th International Conference on Developments in eSystems Engineering (DeSE) (Wuhan, China; 14-17 December 2020) – 2020. – p. 200-205.

[4] Abbyasov B., Dobrokvashina A., Lavrenov R., Kharisova E., Tsoy T., Gavrilova L., Bulatov S., Maslak E., Schiefermeier-Mach N., Magid E. Ultrasound sensor modeling in Gazebo simulator for diagnostics of abdomen pathologies // The 15th Siberian Conference on Control and Communications (SIBCON 2021) (Kazan, Russia; 13-15 May 2021) (online) – 2021. – № 9438910.

[5] Safin R., Lavrenov R., Hsia K.-H., Maslak E., Schiefermeier-Mach N., Magid E. Modelling a TurtleBot3 Based Delivery System for a Smart Hospital in Gazebo // The 15th Siberian Conference on Control and Communications (SIBCON 2021) (Kazan, Russia; 13-15 May 2021) (online) – 2021. – № 9438875.

[6] Bulatov S., Kharisova E., Safin R., Lavrenov R. Information technologies in professional training of medical University graduates: modelling standard interaction with outpatients and treatment process // The 15th Siberian Conference on Control and Communications (SIBCON 2021) (Kazan, Russia; 13-15 May 2021) (online) – 2021. – № 9438915.

[7] Bulatov S., Magid E., Kharisova E., Lavrenov R., Dudin V., Khazetdinov A. Architecture of a student training computer program for preparing professional outpatient consulting skills within an electronic medical records system during COVID-19 alertness situation // International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2021) (online) – 2021. – p. 36-39.

[8] Li H., Nie X., Duan D., Li Y., Zhang J., Zhou M., Magid E. An Admittance-Controlled Amplified Force Tracking Scheme for Collaborative Lumbar Puncture Surgical Robot System // International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery. – 2022. – Vol. 18. – No. 6. – p. 1-13 .

[9] Lychko S., Tsoy T., Li H., Martinez-Garcia E., Magid E. ROS network security for a swing doors automation in a robotized hospital // Siberian Conference on Control and Communications (SIBCON 2022) (online, 17-19 November 2022) – p. 1-6.

[10] Talanov M. et al. Neuropunk Revolution. Hacking Cognitive Systems towards Cyborgs 3.0 // International Journal of Unconventional Computing. – 2023. – pp. 145-201.

[11] Mikhailova Y. Neurointerface with oscillator motifs for inhibitory effect over antagonist muscles / A. Pozdeeva, A. Suleimanova, A. Leukhin, A. Toschev, T. Lukmanov, E. Fatyhova, E. Magid, I. Lavrov, M. Talanov // Frontiers in Neuroscience. – 2023. – Vol. 17. – pp. 1-9.

[12] Abbyasov B., Zagirov A., Gamberov T., Li H., Magid E. Vision-based autonomous navigation for medical examination using a UR3e manipulator // International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2024). – 2024. – Vol.29. – pp. 308-311.

[13] Аббясов Б. Р., Магид Е. А. Концепция автономной навигации манипулятора UR3e с использованием камеры глубины Kinect для диагностического исследования пациента // XIV Всероссийское совещание по проблемам управления : сборник научных трудов, Москва, 17-20 июня 2024. – М. : Институт проблем управления им. В.А. Трапезникова, 2024. – С. 1122-1125.

[14] Salman R., Sulaiman S., Islamova R., Tsoy T. An investigation on the impact of human-robot interactions during an autonomous obstacle avoidance task // International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2024). – 2024. – Vol.29. – pp. 300-303.

[15] Alexeev A., Tsoy T., Martinez-Garcia E. A., Magid E. An Overview of Kinect Based Gesture Recognition Methods // International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2024). – 2024. – Vol.29. – pp. 295-299.