While resuscitation training is critical, healthcare workers (HCWs) with high workload have limited chance to get trained and re-trained due to time and resource constraints. To address this gap, we engaged in a co-design process of robots that facilitate and prepare HCWs for resuscitation procedures (i.e., codes). First, we investigated what resuscitation training consists of, including challenges faced by trainees and trainers. Second, we collaboratively explored how a crash cart robot, that guides users to medical supplies and equipment, could assist trainers and trainees synchronously–during team-based clinical simulations and asynchronously–during one-on-one training. We found that robots could 1) serve as a learning assistant by providing real-time feedback and supporting personalized training needs; and 2) an evaluating assistant by monitoring multiple trainees and tracking critical timing of interventions in the training. Through this new training paradigm, we hope to demonstrate opportunities for crash cart robots to aid HCWs for their sustainable training and reskilling. We discuss the role of robots in training beyond cognitive knowledge, situating them within two underexplored contexts: practical skill training and team-based training.

Designing robots to support high-stakes teamwork in emergency settings presents unique challenges, including seamless integration into fast-paced environments, facilitating effective communication among team members, and adapting to rapidly changing situations. While teleoperated robots have been successfully used in high-stakes domains such as firefighting and space exploration, autonomous robots that aid high-stakes teamwork remain underexplored. To address this gap, we conducted a rapid prototyping process to develop a series of seemingly autonomous robots designed to assist clinical teams in the Emergency Room. We transformed a standard crash cart-which stores medical equipment and emergency supplies into a medical robotic crash cart (MCCR). The MCCR was evaluated through field deployments to assess its impact on team workload and usability, identified taxonomies of failure, and refined the MCCR in collaboration with healthcare professionals. Our work advances the understanding of robot design for high-stakes, time-sensitive settings, providing insights into useful MCCR capabilities and considerations for effective human-robot collaboration. By publicly disseminating our MCCR tutorial, we hope to encourage HRI researchers to explore the design of robots for high-stakes teamwork.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) encounter challenges in hospitals, such as retrieving medical supplies quickly from crash carts, which could potentially result in medical errors and delays in patient care. Robotic crash carts (RCCs) have shown promise in assisting healthcare teams during medical tasks through guided object searches and task reminders. Limited exploration has been done to determine what communication modalities are most effective and least disruptive to patient care in real-world settings. To address this gap, we conducted a between-subjects experiment comparing the RCC’s verbal and non-verbal communication of object search with a standard crash cart in resuscitation scenarios to understand the impact of robot communication on workload and attitudes toward using robots in the workplace. Our findings indicate that verbal communication significantly reduced mental demand and effort compared to visual cues and with a traditional crash cart. Although, frustration levels were slightly higher during collaborations with the robot compared to a traditional cart. These research insights provide valuable implications for human-robot teamwork in high-stakes environments.

The human-robot interaction (HRI) field has recognized the importance of enabling robots to interact with teams. Human teams rely on effective communication for successful collaboration in time-sensitive environments. Robots can play a role in enhancing team coordination through real-time assistance. Despite significant progress in human-robot teaming research, there remains an essential gap in how robots can effectively communicate with action teams using multimodal interaction cues in time-sensitive environments. This study addresses this knowledge gap in an experimental in-lab study to investigate how multimodal robot communication in action teams affects workload and human perception of robots. We explore team collaboration in a medical training scenario where a robotic crash cart (RCC) provides verbal and non-verbal cues to help users remember to perform iterative tasks and search for supplies. Our findings show that verbal cues for object search tasks and visual cues for task reminders reduce team workload and increase perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness more effectively than a robot with no feedback. Our work contributes to multimodal interaction research in the HRI field, highlighting the need for more human-robot teaming research to understand best practices for integrating collaborative robots in time-sensitive environments such as hospitals, search and rescue, and manufacturing applications.