24 accepted papers
Traditional prosthetic sockets are rigid, passive structures that cannot accommodate daily residual limb volume fluctuations and are produced through labor-intensive processes involving environmentally and occupationally hazardous materials. This work presents a 3D-printed, volume-adjustable transfe
Percutaneous Left Atrial Appendage Closure (LAAC) is a minimally invasive procedure to prevent thromboembolic events in atrial fibrillation patients. The procedure’s success relies on precise navigation and occluder deployment, which is challenged by sheath movement in the dynamic cardiac environmen…
Modular soft robot arms (MSRAs) are composed of multiple modules connected in a sequence, and they can bend at different angles in various directions. This capability allows MSRAs to perform more intricate tasks than single-module robots. However, the modular structure also induces challenges in acc…
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is a non-invasive therapeutic technology enabling precise energy delivery for the selective ablation of tumors, while preserving surrounding healthy tissue. Currently, there is no gold standard for defying sonication parameters to cover a tumor surface and vo…
Magnetic actuation is a powerful, non-contact method for controlling milli-scale robots. However existing mobile magnetic field sources face a difficult trade-off. Single-coil end effectors are simple but underactuated, forcing complex and inefficient robot motions to steer objects. Conversely, mult…
Percutaneous Left Atrial Appendage Closure (LAAC) is a minimally invasive procedure to prevent thromboembolic events in atrial fibrillation patients. The procedure's success relies on precise navigation and occluder deployment, which is challenged by sheath movement in the dynamic cardiac environmen
Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) plays an important role in diagnosing cardiac conditions such as valvular diseases and cardiac embolism, as well as guiding various cardiac interventions. It provides detailed cardiac imaging by inserting a probe into the esophagus, which offers an unobstructed v
Micrometer-sized devices hold the potential to revolutionize medicine by improving diagnostic abilities, increasing therapeutic efficiency and reducing adverse effects. To safely operate microrobots (MRs) inside the human body, accurate localization strategies based on medical imaging should be adop
As a permanent solution for patients who cannot contract their urinary bladder, an artificial detrusor muscle appears a higher outcome approach compared to current sacral neurostimulators featured by severe long-term side effects. In this paper, a novel soft robotic detrusor is presented to overcome…
Transcarotid Artery Revascularization (TCAR) is typically performed by manual catheter insertion and implies radiation exposure for both the patient and the surgeon. Taking advantage from robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), this letter presents a robotic ultrasound (RUS) platform for improvin
This study presents a novel robotic module that combines rigid, rigidbut compliant,andsoft components toenable actuation, proprioceptive sensing, and variable stiffness. Three spring-reinforced soft actuators are employed for positioning the module in the 3D space by exploiting a ball joint as rotat
Optical fiber-based shape sensing is gaining popularity in cardiac catheterization lately. Typically, these procedures are taking place under the guidance of fluoroscopy. However, fluoroscopy has several disadvantages. Thanks to fiber optic shape sensing and Electromagnetic Tracking (EMT), the 3D ca
Flexible Endoscopes (FEs) for colonoscopy present several limitations due to their inherent complexity, resulting in patient discomfort and lack of intuitiveness for clinicians. Robotic FEs with autonomous control represent a viable solution to reduce the workload of endoscopists and the training ti…
Continuum robots such as robotic catheters are increasingly being used in minimally invasive surgery. Compliance contributes to enhanced safety during e.g. catheter insertion, however, estimation of contact force and location may help clinicians avoiding exerting excessive force. Ultimately this cou
Learning-based modeling and control of soft robots is advantageous due to neural network’s ability to capture complex dynamical effects with low computational cost. Continual Learning techniques add further value to these methods by allowing networks to learn from continuously available data without
In cardiovascular interventions, when steering catheters and especially robotic catheters, great care should be paid to prevent applying too large forces on the vessel walls as this could dislodge calcifications, induce scars or even cause perforation. To address this challenge, this paper presents
Minimally invasive wireless devices, allowing the sampling of gut’s bacteria, are needed for a longitudinal understanding of the role of the microbiota on the human health. Herein, we present a novel magnetic actuation system fitting inside a 11.5 × 30.5 mm wireless ingestible capsule. Lacking any e…
Nowadays, robot assisted surgery training relies more and more on computer-based simulation. However, the application of such training technologies is still limited to the early stages of practical training. To broaden the usefulness of simulators, multi-sensory feedback augmentation has been recent
Robot-Assisted Surgery enhances vision and it can restore depth perception, but it introduces the need for learning how to tele-operatively control both the surgical tools and the endoscope. Together with the complexity of selecting the optimal viewpoint to carry out the procedure, this requires dis
The high deformability and compliance of soft robots allow safer interaction with the environment. On the other hand, these advantages bring along controllability and predictability challenges which result in loss of force and stiffness output. Such challenges should be addressed in order to improve…
Robot-Assisted systems for Minimally Invasive Surgery enhance the surgeon capability, however, direct control over both the surgical tools and the endoscope results in an increased workload that leads to longer operation times. This work investigates the introduction of SCAN (System for Camera Auton…
This letter tackles the problem of independent control of multiple degrees of freedom (DoF) systems based on local magnetic actuation (LMA). This is achieved by means of a modular disturbance rejection scheme, with the aim of enhancing the range of use of multiple-DoF LMAs in dexterous surgical mani
This paper proposes the design of a vision-guided control law for microrobotic-assisted biomedical applications. More precisely, the developed control law is to servo an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system in real-time to carry out repetitive optical biopsy tasks. The OCT images are simultaneo
There is an emerging trend toward soft robotics due to its extended manipulation capabilities compared to traditionally rigid robot links, showing promise for an extended applicability to new areas. However, as a result of the inherent property of soft robotics being less rigid, the ability to contr