Search

Medical ultrasound (US) systems are widely used for the diagnosis of internal tissues. However, there are challenges associated with acquiring and interpreting US images, such as incorrect US probe placement and limited available spatial information. In this study, we expand the capabilities of medical US imaging using a robotic framework with a high level of autonomy. A 3D camera is used to capture the surface of an anthropomorphic phantom as a point cloud, which is then used for path planning and navigation of the US probe. Robotic positioning of the probe is realised using an impedance controller, which maintains stable contact with the surface during US scanning and compensates for uneven and moving surfaces. Robotic US positioning accuracy is measured to be 1.19± 0.76mm. The mean force along US probe ${z}$ –direction is measured to be 6.11±1.18N on static surfaces and 6.63±2.18N on moving surfaces. Overall lowest measured force of 1.58N demonstrates constant probe-to-surface contact during scanning. Acquired US images are used for the 3D reconstruction and multi-modal visualization of the surface and the inner anatomical structures of the phantom. Finally, K-means clustering is used to segment different tissues. Best segmentation accuracy of the jugular vein according to Jaccard similarity coefficient is measured to be 0.89. With such an accuracy, this system could substantially improve autonomous US acquisition and enhance the diagnostic confidence of clinicians.

A robotic surgical system capable of performing minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is proposed in this paper. Based on the requirements of MIS, a compliant, seven- degrees of freedom (7-DOF) pneumatically actuated mechanism is designed. A remote center of motion (RCM) as a parallelogram mechanism for holding the laparoscopic camera is also developed. The operating workspace of robotic surgical system is determined considering the physical constraints imposed by mechanical joints. The simulation results show that the robotic system meets the design requirement. This research will lay a good foundation for the development of a compliant surgical robot to assist in MIS.

This paper presents a multi-purpose gripping and incision tool-set to reduce the number of required manipulators for targeted therapeutics delivery in Minimally Invasive Surgery. We have recently proposed the use of multi-arm Concentric Tube Robots (CTR) consisting of an incision, a camera, and a gripper manipulator for deep orbital interventions, with a focus on Optic Nerve Sheath Fenestration (ONSF). The proposed prototype in this research, called Gripe-Needle, is a needle equipped with a sticky suction cup gripper capable of performing both gripping of target tissue and incision tasks in the optic nerve area by exploiting the multi-tube arrangement of a CTR for actuation of the different tool-set units. As a result, there will be no need for an independent gripper arm for an incision task. The CTR innermost tube is equipped with a needle, providing the pathway for drug delivery, and the immediate outer tube is attached to the suction cup, providing the suction pathway. Based on experiments on various materials, we observed that adding a sticky surface with bio-inspired grooves to a normal suction cup gripper has many advantages such as, 1) enhanced adhesion through material stickiness and by air-tightening the contact surface, 2) maintained adhesion despite internal pressure variations, e.g. due to the needle motion, and 3) sliding resistance. Simple Finite Element and theoretical modeling frameworks are proposed, based on which a miniature tool-set is designed to achieve the required gripping forces during ONSF. The final designs were successfully tested for accessing the optic nerve of a realistic eye phantom in a skull eye orbit, robust gripping and incision on units of a plastic bubble wrap sample, and manipulating different tissue types of porcine eye samples.

Objectives: This research investigates designing a continuum soft robot and proposing a kinematic matching control to enable the robot to perform a specified medical task, which in this paper is the transesophageal echocardiography (TEE)., Methods: A multi-chamber soft robot was designed and fabricated based on the molding of separate layers. The method of transformation matrices was used to develop the kinematic models, and a control method using Jacobian matrices was proposed to manipulate the robot., Results: A prototype was made based on a multi-chamber multi-layer design. The system contains three segments that can be actuated independently to mimic the active bending part of the respective probe. Kinematic models were developed. Negative pressure (vacuum) was used as actuation input. An open-loop controller inspired by a redundancy resolution technique was proposed to make the soft robot tip follow the desired path, i.e. the path of the rigid ultrasound probe., Conclusions: It is concluded that the soft solution can perform the required task as the reachable points of the TEE tip cover the proposed robot workspace and the proposed control can be used for maneuvering in arbitrary trajectories., (© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.)

An important issue in medical robotics is communication between physicians and robots. Speech-based communication is of particular advantage in robot-assisted surgery. It frees the surgeon’s hands; hence, he can focus on the principal tasks. Man-machine voice communication is the subject of research in various domains (industry, social robotics), but medical robots are very specific. They must precisely synchronize their activities with operators. Voice commands must be possibly short. They must be executed without significant delays. An important factor is the use of a vision system that provides visual information in direct synchronization with surgeon actions. Its functions could be also controlled using speech. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to develop a method facilitating creation of voice-controlled medical robotic systems, fulfilling the mentioned requirements and taking into account possible scenarios of man-machine collaboration in such systems. A robot skill description (RSD) format was proposed in order to facilitate programming of voice control applications. A sample application was developed, and experiments were conducted in order to draw conclusions regarding the usefulness of speech-based interfaces in medical robotics. The results show that a reasonable selection of system functions controlled by voice may lead to significant improvement of man-machine collaboration.

Minimally invasive surgery is of high interest for interventional medicine since the smaller incisions can lead to less pain and faster recovery for patients. The current standard-of-care involves a range of affordable, manual, hand-held rigid tools, whose limited dexterity and range of adoptable shapes can prevent access to confined spaces. In contrast, recently developed roboticized tools that can provide increased accessibility and dexterity to navigate and perform complex tasks often come at the cost of larger, heavier, and grounded devices that are teleoperated, posing a new set of challenges. In this article, we propose a new hand-held concentric tube robot with an associated position control method that has the dexterity and precision of large roboticized devices, while maintaining the footprint of a traditional hand-held tool. The device shows human-in-the-loop control performance that meets the requirements of the targeted application, percutaneous abscess drainage. In addition, a small user study illustrates the advantage of combining rigid body motion of the device with more precise motions of the tip, thus showing the potential to bridge the gap between traditional hand-held tools and grounded robotic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners do not provide only high‐resolution medical imaging but also magnetic robot actuation and tracking. However, the rotational motion capabilities of MRI‐powered wireless magnetic capsule‐type robots have been limited due to the very high axial magnetic field inside the MRI scanner. Medical functionalities of such robots also remain a challenge due to the miniature robot designs. Therefore, a wireless capsule‐type reversible orientation‐locking robot (REVOLBOT) is proposed that has decoupled translational motion and planar orientation change capability by locking and unlocking the rotation of a spherical ferrous bead inside the robot on demand. Such an on‐demand locking/unlocking mechanism is achieved by a phase‐changing wax material in which the ferrous bead is embedded inside. Controlled and on‐demand hyperthermia and drug delivery using wireless power transfer‐based Joule heating induced by external alternating magnetic fields are the additional features of this robot. The experimental feasibility of the REVOLBOT prototype with steerable navigation, medical function, and MRI tracking capabilities with an 1.33 Hz scan rate is demonstrated inside a preclinical 7T small‐animal MRI scanner. The proposed robot has the potential for future clinical use in teleoperated minimally invasive treatment procedures with hyperthermia and drug delivery capabilities while being wirelessly powered and monitored inside MRI scanners.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners do not provide only high‐resolution medical imaging but also magnetic robot actuation and tracking. However, the rotational motion capabilities of MRI‐powered wireless magnetic capsule‐type robots have been limited due to the very high axial magnetic field inside the MRI scanner. Medical functionalities of such robots also remain a challenge due to the miniature robot designs. Therefore, a wireless capsule‐type reversible orientation‐locking robot (REVOLBOT) is proposed that has decoupled translational motion and planar orientation change capability by locking and unlocking the rotation of a spherical ferrous bead inside the robot on demand. Such an on‐demand locking/unlocking mechanism is achieved by a phase‐changing wax material in which the ferrous bead is embedded inside. Controlled and on‐demand hyperthermia and drug delivery using wireless power transfer‐based Joule heating induced by external alternating magnetic fields are the additional features of this robot. The experimental feasibility of the REVOLBOT prototype with steerable navigation, medical function, and MRI tracking capabilities with an 1.33 Hz scan rate is demonstrated inside a preclinical 7T small‐animal MRI scanner. The proposed robot has the potential for future clinical use in teleoperated minimally invasive treatment procedures with hyperthermia and drug delivery capabilities while being wirelessly powered and monitored inside MRI scanners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manual catheter‐based interventions (CBIs) suffer from exposure of the interventionalists to X‐ray, and dependence of their performance on the expertise and fatigue level of the interventionalists. Robot‐assisted catheterization systems (RACS) have been introduced in recent years to improve the efficiency of CBIs; however, using them is still associated with some difficulties such as set‐up dependency to a specific type of intervention instrument, not being portable, and offering limited options of operation modes. The objective of this research is to develop a new RACS to address these shortcomings. We propose Althea II as an improvement for our previously introduced RACS, Althea I. Althea II is designed for both research purposes and clinical applications including catheter‐based cardiovascular interventions. Althea II benefits from a novel structural design leading to a significantly reduced weight and making the device inclusive for a broader range of intervention instruments. Also, a tip detection algorithm is developed and integrated into the graphical user interface (GUI) to enable image‐based navigation, and accordingly, fully automatic navigation. Althea II has improved the outcome of catheter‐based interventions by increased accuracy and precision of the intervention. The system can navigate the catheter tip to a designated target with an accuracy higher than 90% in both velocity and positioning mode. The device is associated with an upgraded GUI equipped with a strong tip detection algorithm with an accuracy of 0.05 mm. Moreover, Althea II gains from a quicker assembly time (20 minutes, which equals five times faster). The independency from specific catheters, several modes of function, an imaged‐based feedback control, portability, and a remote function should allow operation even from beginners and reduce X‐ray exposure. The preliminary research studies verified the accuracy and repeatability of Althea II, demonstrated the feasibility and applicability of using the set‐up in multiple applications, and highlighted the improved set‐up capabilities over the currently available RACS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a magnetic actuation system based on three mobile electromagnetic coils is designed and a control strategy for the system is proposed. Enhanced flexibility combined with optimization algorithms enables the system to satisfy various requirements in applications, such as avoiding collision between the coils and the obstructions within the workspace, placing the coils to optimal positions to enhance energy efficiency, generating wide varieties of magnetic field for complex tasks, and tracking the location of the robot with enlarged workspace. To reach that purpose, a model of the system is built for magnetic field calculation, and a real-time optimization algorithm based on particle swarm optimization combined with a collision detection algorithm is proposed and implemented to calculate optimal positions for coils and at the same time avoid collision. We fabricate a prototype system, named RoboMag, to prove the concept. Simulations and experiments on helical swimmer and soft robot are conducted to evaluate the performance. Compared with two conventional control strategies, the demanded currents for long-distance actuation are reduced by up to 62.7%. The calculation process is conducted in real time and the coils are able to avoid collision with the barriers inside the workspace during actuation. Moreover, generation and steering of a microrobotic swarm is demonstrated, showing the capability of the system in generating programmed dynamic fields for complicated tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuum manipulators, which have gradually become a research hotspot of minimally invasive surgery have the characteristics of small size, lightweight, and better environmental adaptability. In this paper, a two degrees of freedom continuum manipulator with notches is proposed. The kinematic and mechanical models of the notch continuum manipulator are coupled. The output driving force of the motor is needed to control the manipulator. Due to the drift of the current of the motor, the accuracy of the control is low. In order to solve the above problem, the constant curvature assumption is realized by changing the structural parameters of the notches. The continuum manipulator mechanics model is established through the analysis of the continuum manipulator structure. The calculation of the deformation angle of a single notch of the manipulator is carried out. The overall deformation of the manipulator is derived through iterative algorithms. The stiffness of the continuum manipulator, which can affect the deformation of the continuum manipulator is modified by changing the structural parameters. In this way, the problem of the non-constant curvature deformation under the uniform notch of the continuum manipulator is improved. And the effectiveness of the variable stiffness model is verified by simulation experiments.

The emergence and popularization of medical robots bring great convenience to doctors in treating patients. The core of medical robots is the interaction and cooperation between doctors and robots, so it is crucial to design a simple and stable human-robots interaction system for medical robots. Language is the most convenient way for people to communicate with each other, so in this paper, a DQN agent based on long-short term memory (LSTM) and attention mechanism is proposed to enable the robots to extract executable action sequences from doctors' natural language instructions. For this, our agent should be able to complete two related tasks: 1) extracting action names from instructions. 2) extracting action arguments according to the extracted action names. We evaluate our agent on three datasets composed of texts with an average length of 49.95, 209.34, 417.17 words respectively. The results show that our agent can perform better than similar agents. And our agent has a better ability to handle long texts than previous works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robot-assisted surgical procedures have gained much coverage in recent years and favored over manually conducted operations. The medical robots are comprised of manipulators arm that is the multi-degree of freedom positioning devices with a highly non-linear nature to perform various surgical tasks. Due to non-linear effects, robots offer a severe challenge to the control system. Therefore, the control techniques are required for controlling the robots that should be fast enough to accommodate the rapid changes in the system parameters. In this article, the Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller's performance has been investigated in trajectory control of the Two-Link Robotic Manipulator (TLRM) for reliable functioning of these robots. Tracking error and Control input factors have been used to investigate the PID controller's robustness in trajectory control of 'TLRM.' Euler's-lagrange approach has been used for dynamic analysis of 'TLRM'. This work has been accomplished in the MATLAB®/ Simulink environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Straight-line needle insertion is a prevalent tool in surgical interventions in the brain, such as Deep Brain Stimulation and Convection-Enhanced Delivery, that treat a range of conditions from Alzheimer’s disease to brain cancer. Using a steerable needle to execute curved trajectories and correct positional deviation could enable more intervention possibilities, while reducing the risk of complication in these procedures. This paper experimentally identifies model parameters using an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for two different steerable needle models. The results compared a physically motivated model to the established bicycle needle model and found the former to be preferred for modeling soft brain tissue needle insertion. The results also supported the experimentally parameterized models’ use in future applications such as needle steering control.

The global shortage of skilled workers and the growing pressure on medical facilities to work profitably and efficiently is increasingly causing clinics and doctors to confront major problems. Especially routine medical interventions should be performed quickly and with few employees. Nevertheless, cost savings must not be at the expense of patients. One way to solve this dilemma is the use of flexible, collaborating robots, so called Cobots, that can be integrated into existing surgical processes. This paper shows the existing requirements for the workplace and the necessary human-machine interface for use in the medical environment. Furthermore, an approach to human-centered workplace design is reported. In addition to the design of the workplace using virtual ergonomics and workplace analyses, the kinematic chain as well as applicable end effectors for medical interventions are presented. In the context of a phantom study the use of the Cobot could be tested and evaluated for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rigid robots have taken on a variety of automated manufacturing tasks and have made a huge contribution to industrial development; however, they are not suitable for further wearable applications due to their rigid and bulky structure, poor environmental adaptability, and low safety. Soft robots, which are mainly fabricated with flexible or elastomeric materials, can easily adjust to environmental changes and accomplish complex tasks, offering a new paradigm to achieve human–machine compliance. Soft robots do not replace rigid robots but add diverse features for softer robotic applications. In particular, the use of flexible actuators in robotic systems can realize certain intelligent functions, enrich soft robotic systems and migrate academic research to engineering applications. Currently, the application of flexible actuators in soft robotic fields is still at the embryonic stage. However, tremendous application spaces can be envisaged when combining flexible actuators with soft wearable robotics. Therefore, the current flexible actuators that rely on different external stimuli are addressed herein, and their materials, designs, and approaches suitable for soft robotic applications are highlighted. The application advancement and future perspective of flexible actuator prototypes toward various soft robotics are also discussed.

This paper proposes a new ultrasonography guided arterial puncturing and guidewire insertion mechanism. In conventional arterial puncturing, a physician holds an ultrasound probe in one hand and a needle in the other. Due to the prolong holding of ultrasound probe in hand, physicians and sonographers face musculoskeletal disorders. Also the contact force exerted by the hand of the physician is variable. The purpose of this study is to develop a passive device that will not only hold the ultrasound probe, but also performs needle and guidewire insertion with precision and accuracy. To test the effectiveness of the device, animal experimentation has been performed. This device showed 100% successful insertion rate and the operating time has been reduced from 4.5 minutes to 3.8 minutes. The proposed ultrasound probe holder exerts a stable contact force on the skin of the patient which helps to provide a stable image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human safety and data security are two of the main concerns that have limited the utilization of deep learning-based techniques in medical robotic applications. Such concerns are amplified by uncertainty in the deep learning run-time predictions. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for incorporating uncertainty analysis that is fast enough (updates in 20 Hz) to be used in the control loop of a medical robot and that considers both the training and testing phases of the deep learning algorithm. As a case study focusing on the use of a lower-limb exoskeleton to assist the walking of people with disability, we learn the passive human–exoskeleton system's dynamics using Random Forest Regression (RFR) and quantify the uncertainty level of its prediction. Whereas prior art fed the estimated human–robot interaction torque values to the adaptable Central Pattern Generators (CPGs) to refine the gait trajectories, our contribution is to leverage the knowledge of the predictions' uncertainty levels to ensure safety in human–robot interaction. Our proposed framework for uncertainty-aware control of medical robots finds the similarities of labels and predictions in the training set using Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence, while in the test phase, it detects out-of-distribution (OOD) data using Mahalanobis distance between test feature and training distribution. As compared to state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method is real-time and addresses the issue of uncertainty in the decisions of the robot controller. We have tested the proposed method on ExoH3 (Tehnaid S.L.) lower-limb exoskeleton. The experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the uncertainty analysis technique. The results demonstrate that our proposed uncertainty analysis technique can detect OOD features resulting in unsafe motion planning. We also showcase the importance and effectiveness of using uncertainty analysis in the lower-limb exoskeleton case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The instruments currently used by surgeons for in utero treatment of the twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) are rigid or semi-rigid. Their poor dexterity makes this surgical intervention risky and the surgeon's work very complex. This paper proposes the design, assembly and quantitative evaluation of an add-on system intended to be placed on a commercialized cable-driven flexible endoscope. The add-on system is lightweight and easily exchangeable thanks to the McKibben muscle actuators embedded in its system. The combination of the flexible endoscope and the new add-on unit results in an easy controllable flexible instrument with great potential use in TTTS treatment, and especially for regions that are hard to reach with conventional instruments. The fetoscope has a precision of 7.4% over its entire bending range and allows to decrease the maximum planar force on the body wall of 6.15% compared to the original endoscope. The add-on control system also allows a more stable and precise actuation of the endoscope flexible tip.

Featured Application: Gravity compensation mechanism can be applied to general surgery for which the human fatigue due to long operation time should be minimized. Stackable mechanism architecture has demonstrated effective gravity-balancing over entire workspaces. Adjustable balancing is required when balancing is broken due to changing the payload at the distal end of a mechanism. In this paper, adjustable balancing of the stackable mechanism for a variable payload is investigated. For this, balancing conditions for three adjustable balancing methods are suggested, and a new balancing method combining a spring and counterweight is considered as an effective means of adjustable balancing for variable payloads. The excellent performance of the system is proven through experiments. Electromyography (EMG) sensors are employed to measure the amount of energy expenditure during the drilling task. It was verified through several tests that an operator holding a drill mounted at the distal end of a stackable arm felt less energy compared to an operator holding the drill directly in free space. The developed balancing arm was successfully applied during a mastoidectomy. A 3-step warning algorithm along with a braking function was found to be effective for safe surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the work is to assess the use of LEGO-based robotics in the education of medical students. Training on specialized robotic surgery simulators is available only to a small group of specialists. The LEGO Mindstorms was used to create a model of the surgical robot arm. The model is controlled by a specially prepared panel created in the LabVIEW. The functionality of the model of a surgical robot arm allows people who have not been using these robots to become familiar with the basics of their operation. Medical students using the arm will be able to observe structural problems: the stiffness of construction, or its utility, the range of movements and its limitations, motion and force control using different robotic manipulators. The use of a modular computer programming language and a modular building platform problem in LEGO Education contributes to the development of critical thinking and problem solving, and these skills are useful to physicians during their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first demonstration of a pneumatic soft continuum robot is integrated in series with a rigid robot arm, safely performing teleoperated diathermic tissue-cutting. The rigid arm autonomously maintains a safe tool contact force, while the soft arm manually follows the desired cutting path. Ex-vivo experimentation demonstrates submillimetric deviations from target paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A probe for cutting soft gum tissue combines a force sensor and a diode laser. In such operations, contact between the tip of the optical waveguide and the soft gum tissue must first be determined. That permits specification of the cutting trajectory in the robot control system. A probe with a diode laser and single-component force sensor is proposed. The errors regarding contact of the laser's optical waveguide with the soft gum tissue are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunable stiffness control is critical for undertaking surgical procedures using soft manipulators. However, active stiffness control in soft continuum manipulators is very challenging and has been rarely realized for real-time surgical applications. Low stiffness at the tip is much preferred for safe navigation of the robot in restricted spaces inside the human body. On the other hand, high stiffness at the tip is demanded for efficiently operating surgical instruments. In this paper, the manipulability and characteristics of a class of soft hyper-redundant manipulator, fabricated using Ecoflex-0050 TM silicone, is discussed and a new methodology is introduced to actively tune the stiffness matrix, in real-time, for disturbance rejection and stiffness control. Experimental results are used to derive a more accurate description of the characteristics of the soft manipulator, capture the varying stiffness effects of the actuated arm and consequently offer a more accurate response using closed loop feedback control in real-time. The novel results presented in this paper advances the state-of-the-art of tunable stiffness control in soft continuum manipulators for real-time applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic-based approaches are highly promising to provide innovative solutions for the design of medical devices for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, such as in the endoluminal districts. Due to the intrinsic magnetic properties (no current needed) and the high strength-to-size ratio compared with electromagnetic solutions, permanent magnets are usually embedded in medical devices. In this paper, a set of analytical formulas have been derived to model the magnetic forces and torques which are exerted by an arbitrary external magnetic field on a permanent magnetic source embedded in a medical robot. In particular, the authors modelled cylindrical permanent magnets as general solution often used and embedded in magnetically-driven medical devices. The analytical model can be applied to axially and diametrically magnetized, solid and annular cylindrical permanent magnets in the absence of the severe calculation complexity. Using a cylindrical permanent magnet as a selected solution, the model has been applied to a robotic endoscopic capsule as a pilot study in the design of magnetically-driven robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the science-fiction classic Fantastic Voyage [1], a shrink-ray zaps a submarine and the crew within it, and the resulting microscopic vehicle ventures inside a human body to destroy a blood clot and save a prominent patient's life. While that scenario remains in the realm of make-believe, it may not be long before micro- and nanoscale robots can navigate a person's blood vessels and execute a medical task, such as the targeted delivery of drugs or even the performance of some medical procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stackable mechanism architecture has demonstrated effective gravity-balancing over entire workspaces. Adjustable balancing is required when balancing is broken due to changing the payload at the distal end of a mechanism. In this paper, adjustable balancing of the stackable mechanism for a variable payload is investigated. For this, balancing conditions for three adjustable balancing methods are suggested, and a new balancing method combining a spring and counterweight is considered as an effective means of adjustable balancing for variable payloads. The excellent performance of the system is proven through experiments. Electromyography (EMG) sensors are employed to measure the amount of energy expenditure during the drilling task. It was verified through several tests that an operator holding a drill mounted at the distal end of a stackable arm felt less energy compared to an operator holding the drill directly in free space. The developed balancing arm was successfully applied during a mastoidectomy. A 3-step warning algorithm along with a braking function was found to be effective for safe surgery.

Robotic systems have slowly entered the realm of modern medicine; however, outside the operating room, medical robotics has yet to be translated to more routine interventions such as blood sampling or intravenous fluid delivery. In this paper, we present a medical robot that safely and rapidly cannulates peripheral blood vessels—a procedure commonly known as venipuncture. The device uses near-infrared and ultrasound imaging to scan and select suitable injection sites, and a 9-DOF robot to insert the needle into the center of the vessel based on image and force guidance. We first present the system design and visual-servoing scheme of the latest generation robot, and then evaluate the performance of the device through workspace simulations and free-space positioning tests. Finally, we perform a series of motion tracking experiments using stereo vision, ultrasound, and force sensing to guide the position and orientation of the needle tip. Positioning experiments indicate sub-millimeter accuracy and repeatability over the operating workspace of the system, while tracking studies demonstrate real-time needle servoing in response to moving targets. Finally, robotic phantom cannulations demonstrate the use of multiple system states to confirm that the needle has reached the center of the vessel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentric tube surgical robots are minimally invasive devices with the advantages of snake-like reconfigurability, long and thin form factor, and placement of actuation outside the patient's body. These robots can also be designed and manufactured to acquire targets in specific patients for treating specific diseases in a manner that minimizes invasiveness. We propose that concentric tube robots can be manufactured using 3-D printing technology on a patient- and procedure-specific basis. In this paper, we define the design requirements and manufacturing constraints for 3-D printed concentric tube robots and experimentally demonstrate the capabilities of these robots. While numerous 3-D printing technologies and materials can be used to create such robots, one successful example uses selective laser sintering to make an outer tube with a polyether block amide and uses stereolithography to make an inner tube with a polypropylene-like material. This enables a tube pair with precurvatures of 0.0775 and 0.0455 mm ^-1, which can withstand strains of 20% and 5.5% for the outer and inner tubes, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, robots have become standard fixtures in operating rooms. During brain surgery, a NeuroMate robot may guide a neurosurgeon to a target within the pulsing cortex. In orthopedics, a Mako robot sculpts and drills bone during knee and hip replacement surgery. Dominating the general surgery field is the da Vinci robot, a multiarmed device that allows surgeons to conduct precise movements of tools through small incisions that they could not manage with their own hands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents several theoretical aspects regarding the current stage of robots’ performance in the medical field. While robots have the potential and ability to improve the precision, movements, skills and capacities of the human hand, their presence in clinics is rather reduced, although their use is necessary in a variety of branches of the medical “industry”. Medical robots are made of almost rigid connections which comprise articulations that allow relative movements from one connection to another, robots being controlled by a computer system towards any point and in the orientation desired inside the working space.