14 accepted papers
The integration of large-scale foundation models in control loops has shown strong potential for executing complex tasks directly from natural language inputs. However, achieving stability and real-time performance remains a sig- nifi cant challenge, particularly for systems with hard-to-model dynam…
While wearable robots that utilize intrinsically soft materials for actuation offer enhanced safety and biological compatibility, the challenges of sensing and control significantly affect their performance. The control problem in such systems is inherently complex, and the inclusion of 'softness' i
Aneurysms, balloon-like bulges in blood vessels, present a significant health risk due to their potential to rupture, leading to life-threatening internal bleeding. Current treatments often involve delivering embolic materials or metal coils to fill these bulges, occluding them from the pressure of…
Following biology's lead, soft robotics has emerged as a perfect candidate for actuation within complex environments. While soft actuation has been developed intensively over the last few decades, soft sensing has so far slowed to catch up. A largely unresearched area is the change of the soft mater…
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is mostly treated via robotic catheter-based cardiac ablation procedures. Over the last few decades, cables or tendon mechanisms are at the core of available cardiac catheters. Despite advances, the use of cables often results in considerable force loss, nonlinear hysteresis…
Heart rhythm disorders are becoming increasingly prevalent with population aging. Atrial fibrillation ablation (AFA) is a procedure used to treat an irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia) that starts in the heart's upper chambers. The AFA works by scarring or destroying heart tissue to disrupt aberrant…
There is an increasing interest in soft robotic grippers as they exhibit an ability to grip objects of differing shapes, sizes, textures, and even deformable materials, all of which present a difficult challenge to traditional rigid grippers. An ideal soft gripper would exhibit universal gripping wi…
Presents corrections to the above named paper.
Robotic artificial muscles (RAMs) are promising power sources for medical fields such as surgical robotics. However, existing RAMs are challenged by scalability, material costs and fabrications. The nonlinear hysteresis in fluid-driven RAMs causes oscillations in open-loop systems. To circumvent the
Accurate motion control of surgical robots is critical for the efficiency and safety of both state-of-the-art teleoperated robotic surgery and the ultimate autonomous robotic surgery. However, fine motion control for a flexible endoscopic surgical robot is highly challenging because of the shape-dep…
Perforations in flexible endoscopy are life-threatening. Defect closure or suturing in flexible endoscopy has long been a critical challenge due to the confined space of the access routes and surgical sites, high dexterity and force demands of suturing tasks, as well as critical size and strength re…
We developed a foot interface enabling an operator to control a robotic arm with four degrees of freedom in continuous direction and speed, for operating one of the multiple tools required during robot-aided surgery. In this letter, we first test whether this pedal interface can be used to carry out
Accurate haptic feedback is a critical challenge for surgical robots, especially for flexible endoscopic surgical robots whose transmission systems are Tendon-Sheath Mechanisms (TSMs) with highly nonlinear friction profiles and force hysteresis. For distal end haptic sensing of TSMs, this paper, for…
Obesity is defined as an unhealthy excess of body fat, which increases the risks of medical illness and premature mortality. There are multiple health risks linked to obesity such as heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancers, gallbladder disease and gallstones, osteoarthritis,…