Robotic Innovations in Support of the Healthcare Workers Against COVID-19 - DIH-HERO Perspective

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected the conditions of work in healthcare institutions and the quality of patient care around the world. Emerging healthcare robotic technology may facilitate and improve the overall quality of life, as well as the diagnostics, rehabilitation, and intervention services. This paper reports the lessons learned from actions carried out in the implementation of the DIH-HERO project call across Europe for robotic solutions that support healthcare activities. Conclusion remarks are as follows: i) technology pull and the urgent need together accelerate the innovation development and deployment, ii) it takes time to establish safety and legal regulations for the deployment of human-machine devices, so the ethical, safety, and reliability aspects of robotic application need to be carefully considered, iii) technology adoption depends on the trust of the users to the technology, iv) existing robotic technology for prevention, diagnosis, hospital admission, rehabilitation, and intervention is mature enough for the adaptation and deployment, v) unskilled general population should be trained for the usage of robotic technology.