ROS 4 healthcare: a framework for physiological human sensing for social, assistive, rehabilitation, and medical robotics

The pervasive integration of robots into daily life necessitates advanced human-robot interaction (HRI) capabilities, particularly the accurate understanding of human physiological and cognitive states. The current state of the widely used Robot Operating System (ROS2) lacks standardized mechanisms for representing and communicating human states. This paper introduces ROS 4 Healthcare (ROS4HC), a comprehensive open-source framework designed to standardize the acquisition, representation, and integration of human sensing data into robotic systems. ROS4HC provides unified message types, modular sensor drivers, signal processing libraries, and visualization tools for physiological, biological, and physical signals. This framework is validated through empirical case studies in healthcare robotics, including a heart rate (HR)-adaptive wheelchair velocity modulation, an autonomous treadmill system integrating physiological feedback, and a nocturnal monitoring system based on a robotic rocking bed. These case studies demonstrate that the framework enables modular component reuse, standardized communication, and interoperability for better human-robot integration. Beyond healthcare, we highlight ROS4HC's generalizability for critical applications such as industrial safety, human-robot collaboration, and performance monitoring, establishing a standardized infrastructure for safer, more adaptive, and context-aware robotic systems across diverse domains.