15 accepted papers
Microsurgery involves the dexterous manipulation of delicate tissue or fragile structures, such as small blood vessels and nerves, under a microscope. To address the limitations of imprecise manipulation of human hands, robotic systems have been developed to assist surgeons in performing complex mic…
Master-Slave control is commonly used for RobotAssisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (RAMIS). The configuration, as well as the placement of the master manipulators, can influence the remote control performance. An ergonomic shared workspace analysis framework is proposed in this letter. Combined with
Accurate master-slave control is important for Robot-Assisted Microsurgery (RAMS). This paper presents a handheld master controller for the operation and training of RAMS. A 9-axis Inertial Measure Unit (IMU) and a micro camera are utilized to form the sensing system for the handheld controller. A n…
Master-slave control is a common form of human-robot interaction for robotic surgery. To ensure seamless and intuitive control, a mechanism of self-adaptive motion scaling during teleoperaton is proposed in this letter. The operator can retain precise control when conducting delicate or complex mani
Master manipulators represent a key component of Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (RAMIS). In this paper, an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used to construct an effective workspace analysis framework, which can assist the configuration selection and design evaluation of a portab…
Assistive Robotic Manipulators (ARMs) play an important role for people with upper-limb disabilities and the elderly by helping them complete Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). However, as the objects to handle in ADLs differ in size, shape and manipulation constraints, many two or three fingered en…
Recent advances in probe-based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy (pCLE) enable real-time, in situ and in vivo tissue assessment at the micro scale. The limited field-of-view offered by pCLE necessitates the use of mosaicking to allow for accurate tissue characterization from the incoming image stream. H…
Emerging robot-assisted endovascular intervention has the potential to reduce X-ray radiations to the operator while enhancing the stability and dexterity of catheter manipulation. Supervised and shared autonomy of endovascular procedures could add further improvements in reduced fatigue and cogniti…
This letter introduces a single-port robotic platform for transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEMS). Two robotically controlled articulated surgical instruments are inserted via a transanal approach to perform submucosal or full-thickness dissection. This system is intended to replace the conventiona
Increasing demands in endovascular intervention have motivated technical skill training and competency-based measures of performance. However, there are no well-established online metrics for technical skill assessment; few studies have explored operator behavioral patterns from catheter motion and…
The performance of a master-slave robotic system depends significantly on the ergonomics and the capability of its master device to correctly interface the user with the slave robot. Master manipulators generating commands in task space represent a commonly adopted solution for controlling a range o…
Effective in situ, in vivo tumour margin assessment is an important, yet unmet, clinical demand in surgical oncology. Recent advances in probe-based optical imaging tools such as confocal endomicroscopy is making inroads in clinical applications. In practice, maintaining consistent tissue contact wh…
The use of conventional surgical tool holders requires an assistant during positioning and adjustment due to the lack of weight compensation. In this paper, we introduce a robotic arm system with hands-on control approach. The robot incorporates a force sensor at the end effector which realises tool…
As mobile robots are becoming increasingly more popular in workplaces, public places and homes, the understanding of surface dynamics is one of the new challenges to improve their mobility and reduce overall disturbance in the human environment. This work proposes a comparison between different clas…
Despite the increased use of robotic catheter navigation systems, and the growing interest in surgical skill evaluation in the field of endovascular intervention, there is a lack of objective and quantitative metrics for performance evaluation. So far very little research has studied operator behavi…