Secure and privacy-preserving indoor robotics for healthcare environments (RESPECT)

Paving the way for indoor mobile robotics solutions in healthcare

Artificial intelligence and robotics are key to the transformation of the healthcare industry. For example, they can lead to improved quality of patient care while reducing healthcare expenditures. At the same time, however, advancements in these areas open the door to new types of cyberthreats, making many organisations reluctant to adopt them in the workplace. The EU-funded RESPECT project aims to design and develop defence strategies for the secure, safe and privacy-preserving operation of indoor mobile robotics solutions for logistics applications in healthcare. Central to the envisioned activities is the creation of a European, intersectoral network of organisations involved in a collaborative research programme, jointly working towards the achievement of the objectives described above.

Objective

Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence hold a promise for the radical transformation of healthcare services. Besides, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that robots are crucial allies during pandemics. Yet, the adoption of these technologies is impeded by concerns related to cybersecurity issues. The rise of security incidents is a timely reminder that not only the volume of attacks is increasing but their diversity is also expanding, posing a significant threat towards disrupting clinical care delivery. Ongoing research focuses on the use of robotics operating in healthcare spaces (surgical, service, logistics), while security aspects are not well covered in the research community.
RESPECT project objective is to create a sustainable European and inter-sectoral network of organisations working on a joint research programme aiming to design and develop concrete defense strategies to ensure secure, safe, resilient and privacy-preserving operation of indoor mobile robotics solutions for logistic applications in healthcare environments. Specifically the main research objectives of the project are: (i) Explore and identify system-specific cyber-physical weaknesses posing security, privacy, and safety threats, in autonomous mobile robots operating in a healthcare environment; (ii) Analyse surfaced vulnerability issues in conjunction with projected threats and propose defence measures and mitigation strategies towards safeguarding mobile robots operation. (iii) Define and standardize a minimal set of vulnerability testing procedures and guidelines leveraging and extending the Robot Vulnerability Scoring System for safe and autonomous robotic fleet management in a “safety-critical setting”. The project will be implemented through staff exchanges among different organizations with complementary expertise in cybersecurity, healthcare, cloud computing and robotics from 5 countries across EU promoting transfer of knowledge between industry and academia.