Description
Objective: Develop and demonstrate small-robotic swarms capable of autonomous battlefield medical assistance, including short casualty movement, hemorrhage control, fracture stabilization, and medication delivery. Description: This topic addresses a critical battlefield medical need through the development of innovative swarm-based small-robotic systems capable of autonomous medical assistance to incapacitated and difficult to reach casualties. Future Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) predict massive casualty incidents, delayed evacuation, and insufficient capacity of the medical system, especially from the point-of-injury to Role 1 medical care [1]. With a delayed medical response casualties have a high chance of dying due to lack of hemorrhage control which is the leading cause of potentially survivable death in both battlefield and civilian trauma cases prehospital [2,3]. Autonomous medical care may be essential for saving lives in these future contexts, especially for casualties who are unable to treat themselves, have no buddy aide in proximity, or are in inaccessible areas for human medical response. This topic calls for a solution of an autonomous, self-deploying, wound assessing, swarm-capable, self-linking, mobile robotic solution to assist reaching and moving casualties and perform life-saving interventions (LSIs) at the point-of-need. Small swarm robotics provide advantages in their ability to access difficult to reach casualties obscured by rubble and terrain, can adapt by conjoining or detaching to meet the need of a detected casualty, and are ideal for limited space during unmanned evacuation assistance. We believe this is achievable due to the recent advancements in swarm, self-assembling, and mobile robotics, as well as robotics for medical applications [4–7]. For this topic, the novel robotic system should demonstrate at least two of the following four essential capabilities, one form each category: Extraction: Movement of a casualty a short distance (10m) and/or onto a SKED or litter Stabilization of a fractured limb through the entanglement of rigid structures Treatment: Manage massive extremity or junctional hemorrhage control Delivery of medications through intramuscular injection or placement of intraosseous needle First, a solution can demonstrate the ability to leverage a swarm architecture to coordinate the capability to drag/move a casualty a short distance and or position the casualty onto an extraction SKED or litter. Coordinated swarm maneuvers would allow smaller robotics capable of navigating tight spaces lift or drag a casualty together when a single unit may not have the dragging capacity otherwise. Second, a solution can demonstrate protective limb stabilization by entangling multiple robotic units around or along a limb. By interlocking systems, a solution should provide protective bracing around an injured body-part to prevent further injury during casualty movement. Third, a solution can demonstrate the ability to self-arrange and reassemble into shapes to provide massive hemorrhage control. The goal will be to create a “smart tourniquet” capable of autonomously clamping around injured limbs to stop arterial blood flow as well as apply sufficient pressure and coverage over a junctional wound. The solution will need the necessary sensing and intelligence to identify and locate the hemorrhage injury and advanced capabilities and swarm architecture to reassemble into a hemostatic tool. Fourth, a solution can demonstrate the ability to deliver medications to a casualty either through intramuscular injection or establishing an intraosseous infusion. Due to the intended smaller size, the medical robotic solution could be an ideal assistant in the tight quarters of unmanned evacuation vehicles. The ability to provide medications and fluids enables higher qualities of care by autonomous and unmanned systems. The proposed design for a robotic solution should aim to accomplish two of the four tasks with at least one from each category of extraction and treatment while being as small, light, and portable as possible. Proposals that can accomplish more tasks will be reviewed more favorably. The topic is not prescribing a design choice, and proposers are welcome to propose any form factor of robotic system that provides mobility, a swarm architecture, and self-assembly and deployment. The desired utilization of these robots is for individual/self-aid in a frontline environment with the aim to fit into an Individual First Aid Kid (IFAK) or lightweight enough to be deployed via drone-swarm. By leveraging a modular, interconnected, swarm-capable architecture the design should allow for mobility across dynamic environments, adaptability to various anatomies and injuries, and low-cost manufacturing. Keywords: Swarm robotics, battlefield medicine, autonomous systems, hemorrhage control, smart tourniquet, medical robotics, entanglement dynamics, medical automation, emergency response, combat casualty care. CMMC Level: Level 1