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Disinfecting a closed space is a widely discussed topic since the spread of coronavirus. Different methods like chemicals in liquids and gases are used to eliminate pathogens. But these methods would cause environmental damage, which would become another problem for humanity. We developed a robot which uses ultraviolet-C (UV-C) technology for surface disinfection, particularly room in houses, offices, hospitals etc. UV-C radiation is effective against coronavirus and is extremely effective in breaking down the DNA of microorganisms which means they cannot replicate and cause disease. The teleoperated robot is capable of 360-degree disinfection with three UV-C lamps used. It is controlled using an Android app through Bluetooth wireless interface. Due to wireless control, the operator can safely operate the robot from outside the room. The robot is also equipped with a self-timer for turning off the UV-C lamps automatically. The robot has been deployed in our lab and Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi to sanitize the patient's rooms and bathrooms.

Teleoperated robot systems can support humans to accomplish their works in lots of applications. However, the performance of teleoperation is easily influenced by human operator's motor function. In order to reduce the misoperation caused by human operator's unintentional behavior, in this paper, an improved teleoperation scheme combined with Leap Motion and MYO armband is proposed to apply in teleoperating an industrial robot arm. By using the proposed method, we can achieve interaction between human operator and industrial robot arm in real-time. Besides, the proposed method can prevent the misoperation caused by unexpected arm shaking. Experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method for a teleoperated robot system.

During the teleoperated robot assisted catheter interventional neurosurgery, to improve the transparency between the patient side (slave side) and the remote control side (mast side) have been obtained plenty of attention. In this research we hypothesized that the slave catheter interventional robot fully complied with the dynamics command which comes from the master site. This paper is concerned with the design and implementation of a master side by Magnetorheological (MR) fluid, which can reflect the dynamic changes of the insertion resistance force, when the catheter goes through the blood vessel to the lesions. Experimental results showed that MR Fluid actuated haptic interface has a benefit to describe the blood viscous force during the endovascular catheterization.

We developed a teleoperated robot arm system using the Robot Service Network Protocol (RSNP). RSNP is a standard communication protocol for service robots. In order to establish a common teleoperated robot system, we investigated the application of RSNP to our teleoperated robot and newly applied the RSNP to the robot's arm control. Performing precise tasks with a robot arm is usually difficult because of the communication time delay involved with data transfer via the Internet. Here, the method of predictive display was implemented in a teleoperated robot system, and a precise task was performed in experiments using the predictive display.

This paper presents a user study on an implemented Internet-based teleoperation robot named TeleBot. The objectives of the study were to: a) test the usability of TeleBot, b) compare two commonly used devices to control TeleBot, and c) understand further development and requirement of TeleBot by examining how operators use TeleBot to complete a specific task. A task-oriented user study that included navigating TeleBot to a specific location and use TeleBot's arm to touch a “X” marking placed on the door, was designed. Eight participants performed the same task using two different types of device. Both objective and subjective data were collected during the study. The results indicated that a) TeleBot demonstrated a certain level of usability; b) showed that the gamepad was slightly easier to use for teleoperation and finally c) deduced further developmental area for TeleBot.

Lack of haptic feedback in teleoperated robot-assisted surgery (RAS) is known to be detrimental in many surgical tasks. While performing a class of force sensitive tasks, surgeons commonly use both hands. Oftentimes, one hand is used to exert tension/compression forces, and the other to hold the suture knot or tissue. A novel control framework to accomplish haptic force feedback for two-handed tasks in teleoperated RAS is presented in this paper. The force applied on the surgical environment by the action hand is not transferred back to the same hand, but rather to the other hand. In two-handed tasks that involve an action and a reaction force, this provides an intuitive way of feeling the action. Because the loop in not closed from the slave back to the master of the same hand, it does not have a destabilizing effect. The technique can be easily implemented using a variable-structure controller that combines two PD controllers and a switch. It has been evaluated with an experimental setup consisting of four haptic devices with promising results.

We developed a novel platform based on a teleoperated robot to perform high-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging under continuous MRI guidance. The combination of large-scale MRI tissue morphology and high-resolution OCT micro-architecture in a concurrent and co-registered manner has great potential to improve the accuracy of various neurosurgical procedures. In this study, we developed the first MRI-compatible OCT imaging system. We demonstrated that a thin OCT fiber probe (0.23 mm) integrated within surgical tools can provide microstructure information from the ROI under continuous MRI guidance. We tested the system's performance on chicken breast and simulated stereotactic neurosurgery on human brain ex vivo.

In our previous work, a personal telerobot system named “telecommunicator” has been introduced. The telecommunicator achieves communication with a remote person through a teleoperated robot. The telecommunicator can be considered as a wearable telexistence system. Until now, three prototypes of the wearable telecommunicator, T1, T2 and T3, have been developed as research platforms. Through these robots, the operator can communicate with a person in the remote site with realistic sensation. However, it is difficult for the person in the remote site to feel presence of the operator, because of their typical robot appearance. In this paper, to tackle this problem, a wearable miniature humanoid robot MH-1 is introduced as the telecommunicator. MH-1 equips with 4-dof dual arms and a 3-dof head with a stereo camera system. In this paper, its concept, design and a developed prototype model and results of fundamental experiments are described.

The inspection of high-voltage transmission lines is a dangerous and time-consuming job, that relies on especially trained workers operating tens of meters above the ground, and close to live lines with thousands of volts. This paper presents the development of a tele-operated robot designed for preventive maintenance of high-voltage lines. The robot was designed with mobility in mind, so that cable spacers, suspension clamps and other obstacles, which so far have prevented the use of robots for inspection of high-voltage lines, would not hamper the operation of the machine. After careful considerations on mobility, the robot was designed, and a prototype was built. Results of tests, performed on facilities reproducing real field conditions, are also presented in this paper.

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery, or NOTES, allows for exceedingly minimally invasive surgery but has high requirements for the dexterity and force capabilities of the tools. An overview of the ViaCath System is presented. This system is a first generation teleoperated robot for endoluminal surgery and consists of a master console with haptic interfaces, slave drive mechanisms, and 6 degree-of-freedom, long-shafted flexible instruments that run alongside a standard gastroscope or colonoscope. The system was validated through animal studies. It was discovered that the devices were difficult to introduce into the GI tract and manipulation forces were insufficient. The design of a second generation system is outlined with improvements to the instrument articulation section and a steerable overtube. Results of basic evaluation tests performed on the tools are also presented.

The initial focus of this paper is on the relationship between the human factor and the machine. To be more precise, it is a study on the cognitive problems involved when an operator carries out a remote control action on the environment. Subsequently, the article proceeds to examine how studies on behavioural neuroscience can bridge the existing gap between the humans and the machines. This gap is categorised as "disembodiment". In the course of our research, the reduction of the disembodiment was studied in two ways. Firstly, from the robot to the human, by evaluating how the implementation of human-like behaviour of the visual anticipation on the steering can improve the robot control. Secondly, the study focused on the human-robot sense, by testing if we can observe appropriation signs of the machine in the body schema of the operator. All the results are discussed in terms of pertinence of the neuroscientific approach for the conception of physical and functional architecture of a teleoperated robot of rehabilitation.