19 accepted papers
Retinal endolaser photocoagulation (REPC) is a repetitive intraocular surgical procedure that could greatly benefit from automation and distance-based control, improving both efficiency and safety. This work presents a robotic system designed for automated REPC, utilizing instrument-integrated optic…
The fragility of ocular tissues combined with the limited surgical workspace demands precise instrument control and focus, making sensor-integrated robotic systems a promising solution. In this paper, we introduce a surgical system for telemanipulated endolaser photocoagulation that leverages instru
The fragility of ocular tissues combined with the limited surgical workspace demands precise instrument control and focus, making sensor-integrated robotic systems a promising solution. In this paper, we introduce a surgical system for telemanipulated endolaser photocoagulation that leverages instru…
Accurately determining the shape of objects and the location of their internal structures within deformable objects is crucial for medical tasks that require precise targeting, such as robotic biopsies. We introduce LUDO, a method for accurate low-latency understanding of deformable objects. LUDO re…
Accurately determining the shape of deformable objects and the location of their internal structures is crucial for medical tasks that require precise targeting, such as robotic biopsies. We introduce LUDO, a method for accurate low-latency understanding of deformable objects. LUDO reconstructs obje
High-risk applications in robotics, such as robot-assisted surgery, present unique challenges. These systems must be both highly precise and interpretable in order to be deployed in environments with very low tolerance for error or unsafe exploration. We present the first robotic system to demonstra…
Magnetic manipulation has been adopted as a method of actuation in both wireless capsule endoscopy and soft-tethered endoscopy, with the goal of improving gastrointestinal procedures. However, by nature of magnetic manipulation, these endoscopes are typically limited to a maximum of five degrees of
High-risk applications in robotics, such as robot-assisted surgery, present unique challenges. These systems must be both highly precise and interpretable in order to be deployed in environments with very low tolerance for error or unsafe exploration. We present the first robotic system to demonstra
(Semi-)autonomous robotic assistance in minimally invasive surgery has the potential to alleviate surgical staff shortage and decrease the workload of medical professionals. These robots must execute complex tasks within unpredictable and unstructured environments encountered during surgery. Althoug
Cataract is the leading cause of blindness worldwide with an increasing number of patients due to changing demographics, making automation an important part in future surgical treatment. In this work, we focus on a substep of cataract surgery, the Continuous Curvilinear Capsulorhexis (CCC). With a h…
Policy learning in robot-assisted surgery (RAS) lacks data efficient and versatile methods that exhibit the desired motion quality for delicate surgical interventions. To this end, we introduce Movement Primitive Diffusion (MPD), a novel method for imitation learning (IL) in RAS that focuses on gent
To track tumors during surgery, information from preoperative CT scans is used to determine their position. However, as the surgeon operates, the tumor may be deformed which presents a major hurdle for accurately resecting the tumor, and can lead to surgical inaccuracy, increased operation time, and…
Tendon-driven continuum robots offer enhanced dexterity for intricate tasks within confined spaces. Nevertheless, when exclusively relying on remote access points, the entire fixed-length robotic system must be precisely repositioned to insert the robotic structure. Conversely, existing methods inco
Physical simulations that accurately model reality are crucial for many engineering disciplines such as mechanical engineering and robotic motion planning. In recent years, learned Graph Network Simulators produced accurate mesh-based simulations while requiring only a fraction of the computational…
Automation holds the potential to assist surgeons in robotic interventions, shifting their mental work load from visuomotor control to high level decision making. Reinforcement learning has shown promising results in learning complex visuomotor policies, especially in simulation environments where m
Recent advances in medical technology have produced a number of flexible instruments that are capable of traversing non-linear paths. This is of special interest in the field of neurosurgery. However, the non-rigid instruments have the disadvantage that path planning becomes increasingly difficult.…
The promising automation of flexible surgical instruments and robots is impeded by the lack of sensory means, which allow for sensing of an instrument's position to the surrounding tissue. This work presents a novel sensory method utilizing capacitive proximity sensing to derive a relative localizat…
The semantic segmentation of surgical scenes is a prerequisite for task automation in robot assisted interventions. We propose LapSeg3D, a novel DNN-based approach for the voxel-wise annotation of point clouds representing surgical scenes. As the manual annotation of training data is highly time con…
Cognitive cooperative assistance in robot-assisted surgery holds the potential to increase quality of care in minimally invasive interventions. Automation of surgical tasks promises to reduce the mental exertion and fatigue of surgeons. In this work, multi-agent reinforcement learning is demonstrate…