BellBot - A Hotel Assistant System Using Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joaquín López

2013-01-01

Full Text Available There is a growing interest in applying intelligent technologies to assistant robots. These robots should have a number of characteristics such as autonomy, easy reconfiguration, robust perception systems and they should be oriented towards close interaction with humans. In this paper we present an automatic hotel assistant system based on a series of mobile platforms that interact with guests and service personnel to help them in different tasks. These tasks include bringing small items to customers, showing them different points of interest in the hotel, accompanying the guests to their rooms and providing them with general information. Each robot can also autonomously handle some daily scheduled tasks. Apart from user-initiated and scheduled tasks, the robots can also perform tasks based on events triggered by the building's automation system (BAS. The robots and the BAS are connected to a central server via a local area network. The system was developed with the Robotics Integrated Development Environment (RIDE and was tested intensively in different environments.

Assistant Personal Robot (APR: Conception and Application of a Tele-Operated Assisted Living Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eduard Clotet

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the technical description, mechanical design, electronic components, software implementation and possible applications of a tele-operated mobile robot designed as an assisted living tool. This robotic concept has been named Assistant Personal Robot (or APR for short and has been designed as a remotely telecontrolled robotic platform built to provide social and assistive services to elderly people and those with impaired mobility. The APR features a fast high-mobility motion system adapted for tele-operation in plain indoor areas, which incorporates a high-priority collision avoidance procedure. This paper presents the mechanical architecture, electrical fundaments and software implementation required in order to develop the main functionalities of an assistive robot. The APR uses a tablet in order to implement the basic peer-to-peer videoconference and tele-operation control combined with a tactile graphic user interface. The paper also presents the development of some applications proposed in the framework of an assisted living robot.

Robotic assisted andrological surgery

Science.gov (United States)

Parekattil, Sijo J; Gudeloglu, Ahmet

2013-01-01

The introduction of the operative microscope for andrological surgery in the 1970s provided enhanced magnification and accuracy, unparalleled to any previous visual loop or magnification techniques. This technology revolutionized techniques for microsurgery in andrology. Today, we may be on the verge of a second such revolution by the incorporation of robotic assisted platforms for microsurgery in andrology. Robotic assisted microsurgery is being utilized to a greater degree in andrology and a number of other microsurgical fields, such as ophthalmology, hand surgery, plastics and reconstructive surgery. The potential advantages of robotic assisted platforms include elimination of tremor, improved stability, surgeon ergonomics, scalability of motion, multi-input visual interphases with up to three simultaneous visual views, enhanced magnification, and the ability to manipulate three surgical instruments and cameras simultaneously. This review paper begins with the historical development of robotic microsurgery. It then provides an in-depth presentation of the technique and outcomes of common robotic microsurgical andrological procedures, such as vasectomy reversal, subinguinal varicocelectomy, targeted spermatic cord denervation (for chronic orchialgia) and robotic assisted microsurgical testicular sperm extraction (microTESE). PMID:23241637

Robots to assist daily activities: views of older adults with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Rosalie H; Sudhama, Aishwarya; Begum, Momotaz; Huq, Rajibul; Mihailidis, Alex

2017-01-01

Robots have the potential to both enable older adults with dementia to perform daily activities with greater independence, and provide support to caregivers. This study explored perspectives of older adults with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their caregivers on robots that provide stepwise prompting to complete activities in the home. Ten dyads participated: Older adults with mild-to-moderate AD and difficulty completing activity steps, and their family caregivers. Older adults were prompted by a tele-operated robot to wash their hands in the bathroom and make a cup of tea in the kitchen. Caregivers observed interactions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted individually. Transcribed interviews were thematically analyzed. Three themes summarized responses to robot interactions: contemplating a future with assistive robots, considering opportunities with assistive robots, and reflecting on implications for social relationships. Older adults expressed opportunities for robots to help in daily activities, were open to the idea of robotic assistance, but did not want a robot. Caregivers identified numerous opportunities and were more open to robots. Several wanted a robot, if available. Positive consequences of robots in caregiving scenarios could include decreased frustration, stress, and relationship strain, and increased social interaction via the robot. A negative consequence could be decreased interaction with caregivers. Few studies have investigated in-depth perspectives of older adults with dementia and their caregivers following direct interaction with an assistive prompting robot. To fulfill the potential of robots, continued dialogue between users and developers, and consideration of robot design and caregiving relationship factors are necessary.

Acceptance of an assistive robot in older adults: a mixed-method study of human–robot interaction over a 1-month period in the Living Lab setting

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Ya-Huei; Wrobel, Jérémy; Cornuet, Mélanie; Kerhervé, Hélène; Damnée, Souad; Rigaud, Anne-Sophie

2014-01-01

Background There is growing interest in investigating acceptance of robots, which are increasingly being proposed as one form of assistive technology to support older adults, maintain their independence, and enhance their well-being. In the present study, we aimed to observe robot-acceptance in older adults, particularly subsequent to a 1-month direct experience with a robot. Subjects and methods Six older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and five cognitively intact healthy (CIH) older adults were recruited. Participants interacted with an assistive robot in the Living Lab once a week for 4 weeks. After being shown how to use the robot, participants performed tasks to simulate robot use in everyday life. Mixed methods, comprising a robot-acceptance questionnaire, semistructured interviews, usability-performance measures, and a focus group, were used. Results Both CIH and MCI subjects were able to learn how to use the robot. However, MCI subjects needed more time to perform tasks after a 1-week period of not using the robot. Both groups rated similarly on the robot-acceptance questionnaire. They showed low intention to use the robot, as well as negative attitudes toward and negative images of this device. They did not perceive it as useful in their daily life. However, they found it easy to use, amusing, and not threatening. In addition, social influence was perceived as powerful on robot adoption. Direct experience with the robot did not change the way the participants rated robots in their acceptance questionnaire. We identified several barriers to robot-acceptance, including older adults’ uneasiness with technology, feeling of stigmatization, and ethical/societal issues associated with robot use. Conclusion It is important to destigmatize images of assistive robots to facilitate their acceptance. Universal design aiming to increase the market for and production of products that are usable by everyone (to the greatest extent possible) might help to

Measuring acceptance of an assistive social robot: a suggested toolkit

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heerink, M.; Kröse, B.; Evers, V.; Wielinga, B.

2009-01-01

The human robot interaction community is multidisciplinary by nature and has members from social science to engineering backgrounds. In this paper we aim to provide human robot developers with a straightforward toolkit to evaluate users' acceptance of assistive social robots they are designing or

Human likeness: cognitive and affective factors affecting adoption of robot-assisted learning systems

Science.gov (United States)

Yoo, Hosun; Kwon, Ohbyung; Lee, Namyeon

2016-07-01

With advances in robot technology, interest in robotic e-learning systems has increased. In some laboratories, experiments are being conducted with humanoid robots as artificial tutors because of their likeness to humans, the rich possibilities of using this type of media, and the multimodal interaction capabilities of these robots. The robot-assisted learning system, a special type of e-learning system, aims to increase the learner's concentration, pleasure, and learning performance dramatically. However, very few empirical studies have examined the effect on learning performance of incorporating humanoid robot technology into e-learning systems or people's willingness to accept or adopt robot-assisted learning systems. In particular, human likeness, the essential characteristic of humanoid robots as compared with conventional e-learning systems, has not been discussed in a theoretical context. Hence, the purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical model to explain the process of adoption of robot-assisted learning systems. In the proposed model, human likeness is conceptualized as a combination of media richness, multimodal interaction capabilities, and para-social relationships; these factors are considered as possible determinants of the degree to which human cognition and affection are related to the adoption of robot-assisted learning systems.

[Robot-assisted pancreatic resection].

Science.gov (United States)

Müssle, B; Distler, M; Weitz, J; Welsch, T

2017-06-01

Although robot-assisted pancreatic surgery has been considered critically in the past, it is nowadays an established standard technique in some centers, for distal pancreatectomy and pancreatic head resection. Compared with the laparoscopic approach, the use of robot-assisted surgery seems to be advantageous for acquiring the skills for pancreatic, bile duct and vascular anastomoses during pancreatic head resection and total pancreatectomy. On the other hand, the use of the robot is associated with increased costs and only highly effective and professional robotic programs in centers for pancreatic surgery will achieve top surgical and oncological quality, acceptable operation times and a reduction in duration of hospital stay. Moreover, new technologies, such as intraoperative fluorescence guidance and augmented reality will define additional indications for robot-assisted pancreatic surgery.

Dynamic perceptions of human-likeness while interacting with a social robot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruijten, P.A.M.; Cuijpers, R.H.

2017-01-01

In human-robot interaction research, much attention is given to the development of socially assistive robots that can have natural interactions with their users. One crucial aspect of such natural interactions is that the robot is perceived as human-like. Much research already exists that

Investigating the Effects of Robot-Assisted Therapy among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder using Bio-markers

Science.gov (United States)

Bharatharaj, Jaishankar; Huang, Loulin; Al-Jumaily, Ahmed; Elara, Mohan Rajesh; Krägeloh, Chris

2017-09-01

Therapeutic pet robots designed to help humans with various medical conditions could play a vital role in physiological, psychological and social-interaction interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this paper, we report our findings from a robot-assisted therapeutic study conducted over seven weeks to investigate the changes in stress levels of children with ASD. For this study, we used the parrot-inspired therapeutic robot, KiliRo, we developed and investigated urinary and salivary samples of participating children to report changes in stress levels before and after interacting with the robot. This is a pioneering human-robot interaction study to investigate the effects of robot-assisted therapy using salivary samples. The results show that the bio-inspired robot-assisted therapy can significantly help reduce the stress levels of children with ASD.

Design of Intelligent Robot as A Tool for Teaching Media Based on Computer Interactive Learning and Computer Assisted Learning to Improve the Skill of University Student

Science.gov (United States)

Zuhrie, M. S.; Basuki, I.; Asto B, I. G. P.; Anifah, L.

2018-01-01

The focus of the research is the teaching module which incorporates manufacturing, planning mechanical designing, controlling system through microprocessor technology and maneuverability of the robot. Computer interactive and computer-assisted learning is strategies that emphasize the use of computers and learning aids (computer assisted learning) in teaching and learning activity. This research applied the 4-D model research and development. The model is suggested by Thiagarajan, et.al (1974). 4-D Model consists of four stages: Define Stage, Design Stage, Develop Stage, and Disseminate Stage. This research was conducted by applying the research design development with an objective to produce a tool of learning in the form of intelligent robot modules and kit based on Computer Interactive Learning and Computer Assisted Learning. From the data of the Indonesia Robot Contest during the period of 2009-2015, it can be seen that the modules that have been developed confirm the fourth stage of the research methods of development; disseminate method. The modules which have been developed for students guide students to produce Intelligent Robot Tool for Teaching Based on Computer Interactive Learning and Computer Assisted Learning. Results of students’ responses also showed a positive feedback to relate to the module of robotics and computer-based interactive learning.

Towards quantifying dynamic human-human physical interactions for robot assisted stroke therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohan, Mayumi; Mendonca, Rochelle; Johnson, Michelle J

2017-07-01

Human-Robot Interaction is a prominent field of robotics today. Knowledge of human-human physical interaction can prove vital in creating dynamic physical interactions between human and robots. Most of the current work in studying this interaction has been from a haptic perspective. Through this paper, we present metrics that can be used to identify if a physical interaction occurred between two people using kinematics. We present a simple Activity of Daily Living (ADL) task which involves a simple interaction. We show that we can use these metrics to successfully identify interactions.

Exploring requirements and alternative pet robots for robot assisted therapy with older adults with dementia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

P Martinez-Martim; J. Albo-Canals; S. Anisuzzaman; Marcel Heerink; M. Valenti-Soler; J. Zondag; C. Smits

2013-01-01

Robot assisted therapy has been applied in care for older adults who suffer from dementia for over ten years. Strong effects like improved interac-tion and signs of a higher sense of wellbeing have been reported. Still it is un-clear which features are needed and which robotic pets would are

[Simulation-based robot-assisted surgical training].

Science.gov (United States)

Kolontarev, K B; Govorov, A V; Rasner, P I; Sheptunov, S A; Prilepskaya, E A; Maltsev, E G; Pushkar, D Yu

2015-12-01

Since the first use of robotic surgical system in 2000, the robot-assisted technology has gained wide popularity throughout the world. Robot-assisted surgical training is a complex issue that requires significant efforts from students and teacher. During the last two decades, simulation-based training had received active development due to wide-spread occurrence and popularization of laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgical techniques. We performed a systematic review to identify the currently available simulators for robot-assisted surgery. We searched the Medline and Pubmed, English sources of literature data, using the following key words and phrases: "robotics", "robotic surgery", "computer assisted surgery", "simulation", "computer simulation", "virtual reality", "surgical training", and "surgical education". There were identified 565 publications, which meet the key words and phrases; 19 publications were selected for the final analysis. It was established that simulation-based training is the most promising teaching tool that can be used in the training of the next generation robotic surgeons. Today the use of simulators to train surgeons is validated. Price of devices is an obvious barrier for inclusion in the program for training of robotic surgeons, but the lack of this tool will result in a sharp increase in the duration of specialists training.

Performance Evaluation Methods for Assistive Robotic Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Tsui, Katherine M.; Feil-Seifer, David J.; Matarić, Maja J.; Yanco, Holly A.

Robots have been developed for several assistive technology domains, including intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders, eldercare, and post-stroke rehabilitation. Assistive robots have also been used to promote independent living through the use of devices such as intelligent wheelchairs, assistive robotic arms, and external limb prostheses. Work in the broad field of assistive robotic technology can be divided into two major research phases: technology development, in which new devices, software, and interfaces are created; and clinical, in which assistive technology is applied to a given end-user population. Moving from technology development towards clinical applications is a significant challenge. Developing performance metrics for assistive robots poses a related set of challenges. In this paper, we survey several areas of assistive robotic technology in order to derive and demonstrate domain-specific means for evaluating the performance of such systems. We also present two case studies of applied performance measures and a discussion regarding the ubiquity of functional performance measures across the sampled domains. Finally, we present guidelines for incorporating human performance metrics into end-user evaluations of assistive robotic technologies.

Designing a social and assistive robot for seniors.

Science.gov (United States)

Eftring, H; Frennert, S

2016-06-01

The development of social assistive robots is an approach with the intention of preventing and detecting falls among seniors. There is a need for a relatively low-cost mobile robot with an arm and a gripper which is small enough to navigate through private homes. User requirements of a social assistive robot were collected using workshops, a questionnaire and interviews. Two prototype versions of a robot were designed, developed and tested by senior citizens (n = 49) in laboratory trials for 2 h each and in the private homes of elderly persons (n = 18) for 3 weeks each. The user requirement analysis resulted in a specification of tasks the robot should be able to do to prevent and detect falls. It was a challenge but possible to design and develop a robot where both the senior and the robot arm could reach the necessary interaction points of the robot. The seniors experienced the robot as happy and friendly. They wanted the robot to be narrower so it could pass through narrow passages in the home and they also wanted it to be able to pass over thresholds without using ramps and to drive over carpets. User trials in seniors' homes are very important to acquire relevant knowledge for developing robots that can handle real life situations in the domestic environment. Very high reliability of a robot is needed to get feedback about how seniors experience the overall behavior of the robot and to find out if the robot could reduce falls and improve the feeling of security for seniors living alone.

Limited Evidence for Robot-assisted Surgery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Broholm, Malene; Onsberg Hansen, Iben; Rosenberg, Jacob

2016-01-01

-assisted surgery. Open versus robot-assisted surgery was investigated in 3 studies. A lower blood loss and a longer operative time were found after robot-assisted surgery. No other difference was detected. CONCLUSIONS: At this point there is not enough evidence to support the significantly higher costs......PURPOSE: To evaluate available evidence on robot-assisted surgery compared with open and laparoscopic surgery. METHOD: The databases Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials comparing robot-assisted surgery with open and laparoscopic...... surgery regardless of surgical procedure. Meta-analyses were performed on each outcome with appropriate data material available. Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias was used to evaluate risk of bias on a study level. The GRADE approach was used to evaluate the quality of evidence...

Surgical Residents are Excluded From Robot-assisted Surgery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Broholm, Malene; Rosenberg, Jacob

2015-01-01

PURPOSE: Implementation of a robotic system may influence surgical training. The aim was to report the charge of the operating surgeon and the bedside assistant at robot-assisted procedures in urology, gynecology, and colorectal surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A review of hospital charts from...... performed. In 10 (1.3%) of these procedures, a resident attended as bedside assistant and never as operating surgeon in the console. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate a severe problem with surgical education. Robot-assisted surgery is increasingly used; however, robotic surgical training during residency...... surgical procedures during a 1-year period from October 2013 to October 2014. All robot-assisted urologic, gynecologic, and colorectal procedures were identified. Charge of both operating surgeon in the console and bedside assistant were registered. RESULTS: A total of 774 robot-assisted procedures were...

The Tactile Ethics of Soft Robotics: Designing Wisely for Human-Robot Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Thomas; Scheutz, Matthias

2017-06-01

Soft robots promise an exciting design trajectory in the field of robotics and human-robot interaction (HRI), promising more adaptive, resilient movement within environments as well as a safer, more sensitive interface for the objects or agents the robot encounters. In particular, tactile HRI is a critical dimension for designers to consider, especially given the onrush of assistive and companion robots into our society. In this article, we propose to surface an important set of ethical challenges for the field of soft robotics to meet. Tactile HRI strongly suggests that soft-bodied robots balance tactile engagement against emotional manipulation, model intimacy on the bonding with a tool not with a person, and deflect users from personally and socially destructive behavior the soft bodies and surfaces could normally entice.

Robot-assisted surgery in gynecological oncology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristensen, Steffen E; Mosgaard, Berit J; Rosendahl, Mikkel

2017-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Robot-assisted surgery has become more widespread in gynecological oncology. The purpose of this systematic review is to present current knowledge on robot-assisted surgery, and to clarify and discuss controversies that have arisen alongside the development and deployment. MATERIAL...... was performed by screening of titles and abstracts, and by full text scrutiny. From 2001 to 2016, a total of 76 references were included. RESULTS: Robot-assisted surgery in gynecological oncology has increased, and current knowledge supports that the oncological safety is similar, compared with previous...

Acceptance and Attitudes Toward a Human-like Socially Assistive Robot by Older Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Louie, Wing-Yue Geoffrey; McColl, Derek; Nejat, Goldie

2014-01-01

Recent studies have shown that cognitive and social interventions are crucial to the overall health of older adults including their psychological, cognitive, and physical well-being. However, due to the rapidly growing elderly population of the world, the resources and people to provide these interventions is lacking. Our work focuses on the use of social robotic technologies to provide person-centered cognitive interventions. In this article, we investigate the acceptance and attitudes of older adults toward the human-like expressive socially assistive robot Brian 2.1 in order to determine if the robot's human-like assistive and social characteristics would promote the use of the robot as a cognitive and social interaction tool to aid with activities of daily living. The results of a robot acceptance questionnaire administered during a robot demonstration session with a group of 46 elderly adults showed that the majority of the individuals had positive attitudes toward the socially assistive robot and its intended applications.

Knowledge assistant for robotic environmental characterization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feddema, J.; Rivera, J.; Tucker, S.; Matek, J.

1996-08-01

A prototype sensor fusion framework called the open-quotes Knowledge Assistantclose quotes has been developed and tested on a gantry robot at Sandia National Laboratories. This Knowledge Assistant guides the robot operator during the planning, execution, and post analysis stages of the characterization process. During the planning stage, the Knowledge Assistant suggests robot paths and speeds based on knowledge of sensors available and their physical characteristics. During execution, the Knowledge Assistant coordinates the collection of data through a data acquisition open-quotes specialist.close quotes During execution and postanalysis, the Knowledge Assistant sends raw data to other open-quotes specialists,close quotes which include statistical pattern recognition software, a neural network, and model-based search software. After the specialists return their results, the Knowledge Assistant consolidates the information and returns a report to the robot control system where the sensed objects and their attributes (e.g., estimated dimensions, weight, material composition, etc.) are displayed in the world model. This report highlights the major components of this system

Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotic System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian Abrudean

2015-06-01

Full Text Available A short introduction concerning the content of Assistive Technology and Rehabilitation Engineering is followed by a study of robotic systems which combine two or more assistive functions. Based on biomechanical aspects, a complex robotic system is presented, starting with the study of functionality and ending with the practical aspects of the prototype development.

Locomotor Sub-functions for Control of Assistive Wearable Robots

OpenAIRE

Sharbafi, Maziar A.; Seyfarth, Andre; Zhao, Guoping

2017-01-01

A primary goal of comparative biomechanics is to understand the fundamental physics of locomotion within an evolutionary context. Such an understanding of legged locomotion results in a transition from copying nature to borrowing strategies for interacting with the physical world regarding design and control of bio-inspired legged robots or robotic assistive devices. Inspired from nature, legged locomotion can be composed of three locomotor sub-functions, which are intrinsically interrelated:...

Ambulatory movements, team dynamics and interactions during robot-assisted surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, Nabeeha; Hussein, Ahmed A; Cavuoto, Lora; Sharif, Mohamed; Allers, Jenna C; Hinata, Nobuyuki; Ahmad, Basel; Kozlowski, Justen D; Hashmi, Zishan; Bisantz, Ann; Guru, Khurshid A

2016-07-01

To analyse ambulatory movements and team dynamics during robot-assisted surgery (RAS), and to investigate whether congestion of the physical space associated with robotic technology led to workflow challenges or predisposed to errors and adverse events. With institutional review board approval, we retrospectively reviewed 10 recorded robot-assisted radical prostatectomies in a single operating room (OR). The OR was divided into eight zones, and all movements were tracked and described in terms of start and end zones, duration, personnel and purpose. Movements were further classified into avoidable (can be eliminated/improved) and unavoidable (necessary for completion of the procedure). The mean operating time was 166 min, of which ambulation constituted 27 min (16%). A total of 2 896 ambulatory movements were identified (mean: 290 ambulatory movements/procedure). Most of the movements were procedure-related (31%), and were performed by the circulating nurse. We identified 11 main pathways in the OR; the heaviest traffic was between the circulating nurse zone, transit zone and supply-1 zone. A total of 50% of ambulatory movements were found to be avoidable. More than half of the movements during RAS can be eliminated with an improved OR setting. More studies are needed to design an evidence-based OR layout that enhances access, workflow and patient safety. © 2016 The Authors BJU International © 2016 BJU International Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Perioperative outcomes of video- and robot-assisted segmentectomies.

Science.gov (United States)

Rinieri, Philippe; Peillon, Christophe; Salaün, Mathieu; Mahieu, Julien; Bubenheim, Michael; Baste, Jean-Marc

2016-02-01

Video-assisted thoracic surgery appears to be technically difficult for segmentectomy. Conversely, robotic surgery could facilitate the performance of segmentectomy. The aim of this study was to compare the early results of video- and robot-assisted segmentectomies. Data were collected prospectively on videothoracoscopy from 2010 and on robotic procedures from 2013. Fifty-one patients who were candidates for minimally invasive segmentectomy were included in the study. Perioperative outcomes of video-assisted and robotic segmentectomies were compared. The minimally invasive segmentectomies included 32 video- and 16 robot-assisted procedures; 3 segmentectomies (2 video-assisted and 1 robot-assisted) were converted to lobectomies. Four conversions to thoracotomy were necessary for anatomical reason or arterial injury, with no uncontrolled bleeding in the robotic arm. There were 7 benign or infectious lesions, 9 pre-invasive lesions, 25 lung cancers, and 10 metastatic diseases. Patient characteristics, type of segment, conversion to thoracotomy, conversion to lobectomy, operative time, postoperative complications, chest tube duration, postoperative stay, and histology were similar in the video and robot groups. Estimated blood loss was significantly higher in the video group (100 vs. 50 mL, p = 0.028). The morbidity rate of minimally invasive segmentectomy was low. The short-term results of video-assisted and robot-assisted segmentectomies were similar, and more data are required to show any advantages between the two techniques. Long-term oncologic outcomes are necessary to evaluate these new surgical practices. © The Author(s) 2016.

Mobile Manipulation, Tool Use, and Intuitive Interaction for Cognitive Service Robot Cosero

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jörg Stückler

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Cognitive service robots that shall assist persons in need in performing their activities of daily living have recently received much attention in robotics research.Such robots require a vast set of control and perception capabilities to provide useful assistance through mobile manipulation and human-robot interaction.In this article, we present hardware design, perception, and control methods for our cognitive service robot Cosero.We complement autonomous capabilities with handheld teleoperation interfaces on three levels of autonomy.The robot demonstrated various advanced skills, including the use of tools.With our robot we participated in the annual international RoboCup@Home competitions, winning them three times in a row.

An Interactive Astronaut-Robot System with Gesture Control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinguo Liu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Human-robot interaction (HRI plays an important role in future planetary exploration mission, where astronauts with extravehicular activities (EVA have to communicate with robot assistants by speech-type or gesture-type user interfaces embedded in their space suits. This paper presents an interactive astronaut-robot system integrating a data-glove with a space suit for the astronaut to use hand gestures to control a snake-like robot. Support vector machine (SVM is employed to recognize hand gestures and particle swarm optimization (PSO algorithm is used to optimize the parameters of SVM to further improve its recognition accuracy. Various hand gestures from American Sign Language (ASL have been selected and used to test and validate the performance of the proposed system.

Robotic-assisted versus laparoscopic colectomy: cost and clinical outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Bradley R; Yoo, Andrew C; Moore, Matt; Gunnarsson, Candace

2014-01-01

Laparoscopic colectomies, with and without robotic assistance, are performed to treat both benign and malignant colonic disease. This study compared clinical and economic outcomes for laparoscopic colectomy procedures with and without robotic assistance. Patients aged ≥18 years having primary inpatient laparoscopic colectomy procedures (cecectomy, right hemicolectomy, left hemicolectomy, and sigmoidectomy) identified by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition procedure codes performed between 2009 and the second quarter of 2011 from the Premier Hospital Database were studied. Patients were matched to a control cohort using propensity scores for disease, comorbidities, and hospital characteristics and were matched 1:1 for specific colectomy procedure. The outcomes of interest were hospital cost of laparoscopic robotic-assisted colectomy compared with traditional laparoscopic colectomy, surgery time, adverse events, and length of stay. Of 25,758 laparoscopic colectomies identified, 98% were performed without robotic assistance and 2% were performed with robotic assistance. After matching, 1066 patients remained, 533 in each group. Lengths of stay were not significantly different between the matched cohorts, nor were rates of major, minor, and/or surgical complications. Inpatient procedures with robotic assistance were significantly more costly than those without robotic assistance ($17,445 vs $15,448, P = .001). Operative times were significantly longer for robotic-assisted procedures (4.37 hours vs 3.34 hours, P < .001). Segmental colectomies can be performed safely by either laparoscopic or robotic-assisted methods. Increased per-case hospital costs for robotic-assisted procedures and prolonged operative times suggest that further investigation is warranted when considering robotic technology for routine laparoscopic colectomies.

Intelligent assistive robots recent advances in assistive robotics for everyday activities

CERN Document Server

Moreno, Juan; Kong, Kyoungchul; Amirat, Yacine

2015-01-01

This book deals with the growing challenges of using assistive robots in our everyday activities along with providing intelligent assistive services. The presented applications concern mainly healthcare and wellness such as helping elderly people, assisting dependent persons, habitat monitoring in smart environments, well-being, security, etc. These applications reveal also new challenges regarding control theory, mechanical design, mechatronics, portability, acceptability, scalability, security, etc.  

Virtual tutor systems for robot-assisted instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Zhijing; Zhao, Deyu; Zhang, Zizhen; Wei, Yongji; Qi, Bingchen; Okawa, Yoshikuni

2004-03-01

Virtual Reality technology belongs to advanced computer technology, it has been applied in instruction field and gains obvious effect. At the same time, robot assisted instruction comes true with the continuous development of Robot technology and artificial intelligence technology. This paper introduces a virtual tutor system for robot assisted instruction.

‘Active citizenship’ and feeding assistive robotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nickelsen, Niels Christian Mossfeldt

2018-01-01

Would you want to be fed by a robot? This question may or may not sound attractive to a severely disabled citizen striving for self-reliance. Recently assistive robotics have become a new factor to rely on in relation to a number of aspects of social work and health care. These initiatives have...... study, I discuss the ways humans engage with them, how they co-produce everyday life in housing institutions, and the sensitivity of assistive robotics. During the latest years, Feeding Assistive Robotics (FAR) have enjoyed strong political endorsement in Denmark. Nevertheless, I argue, it is difficult...

Interacting With Robots to Investigate the Bases of Social Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Sciutti, Alessandra; Sandini, Giulio

2017-12-01

Humans show a great natural ability at interacting with each other. Such efficiency in joint actions depends on a synergy between planned collaboration and emergent coordination, a subconscious mechanism based on a tight link between action execution and perception. This link supports phenomena as mutual adaptation, synchronization, and anticipation, which cut drastically the delays in the interaction and the need of complex verbal instructions and result in the establishment of joint intentions, the backbone of social interaction. From a neurophysiological perspective, this is possible, because the same neural system supporting action execution is responsible of the understanding and the anticipation of the observed action of others. Defining which human motion features allow for such emergent coordination with another agent would be crucial to establish more natural and efficient interaction paradigms with artificial devices, ranging from assistive and rehabilitative technology to companion robots. However, investigating the behavioral and neural mechanisms supporting natural interaction poses substantial problems. In particular, the unconscious processes at the basis of emergent coordination (e.g., unintentional movements or gazing) are very difficult-if not impossible-to restrain or control in a quantitative way for a human agent. Moreover, during an interaction, participants influence each other continuously in a complex way, resulting in behaviors that go beyond experimental control. In this paper, we propose robotics technology as a potential solution to this methodological problem. Robots indeed can establish an interaction with a human partner, contingently reacting to his actions without losing the controllability of the experiment or the naturalness of the interactive scenario. A robot could represent an "interactive probe" to assess the sensory and motor mechanisms underlying human-human interaction. We discuss this proposal with examples from our

Socially intelligent robots: dimensions of human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Dautenhahn, Kerstin

2007-04-29

Social intelligence in robots has a quite recent history in artificial intelligence and robotics. However, it has become increasingly apparent that social and interactive skills are necessary requirements in many application areas and contexts where robots need to interact and collaborate with other robots or humans. Research on human-robot interaction (HRI) poses many challenges regarding the nature of interactivity and 'social behaviour' in robot and humans. The first part of this paper addresses dimensions of HRI, discussing requirements on social skills for robots and introducing the conceptual space of HRI studies. In order to illustrate these concepts, two examples of HRI research are presented. First, research is surveyed which investigates the development of a cognitive robot companion. The aim of this work is to develop social rules for robot behaviour (a 'robotiquette') that is comfortable and acceptable to humans. Second, robots are discussed as possible educational or therapeutic toys for children with autism. The concept of interactive emergence in human-child interactions is highlighted. Different types of play among children are discussed in the light of their potential investigation in human-robot experiments. The paper concludes by examining different paradigms regarding 'social relationships' of robots and people interacting with them.

Early results after robot-assisted colorectal surgery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eriksen, Jens Ravn; Helvind, Neel Maria; Jakobsen, Henrik Loft

2013-01-01

Implementation of robotic technology in surgery is challenging in many ways. The aim of this study was to present the implementation process and results of the first two years of consecutive robot-assisted laparoscopic (RAL) colorectal procedures.......Implementation of robotic technology in surgery is challenging in many ways. The aim of this study was to present the implementation process and results of the first two years of consecutive robot-assisted laparoscopic (RAL) colorectal procedures....

Speech interaction strategies for a humanoid assistant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stüker Sebastian

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The goal of SecondHands, a H2020 project, is to design a robot that can offer help to a maintenance technician in a proactive manner. The robot is to act as a second pair of hands that can assist the technician when he is in need of help. In order for the robot to be of real help to the technician, it needs to understand his needs and follow his commands. Interaction via speech is a crucial part of this. Due to the nature of the situation in which the interactions take place, often the technician needs to speak to the robot when under stress performing strenuous physical labor, the classical turn based interaction schemes need to be transformed into dialogue systems that perform stream processing, anticipating user intentions, correcting itself as more information become available, in order to be able to respond in a rapid manner. In order to meet these demands, we are developing low-latency streaming based automatic speech recognition systems in combination with recurrent neural network based Natural Language Understanding systems that perform slot filling and intent recognition in order for the robot to provide assistance in a rapid manner, that can be partly based on speculative classifications that are then being refined as more speech becomes available.

Robotic-assisted thermal ablation of liver tumours

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdullah, Basri Johan Jeet; Yeong, Chai Hong; Goh, Khean Lee; Yoong, Boon Koon; Ho, Gwo Fuang; Yim, Carolyn Chue Wai; Kulkarni, Anjali

2015-01-01

This study aimed to assess the technical success, radiation dose, safety and performance level of liver thermal ablation using a computed tomography (CT)-guided robotic positioning system. Radiofrequency and microwave ablation of liver tumours were performed on 20 patients (40 lesions) with the assistance of a CT-guided robotic positioning system. The accuracy of probe placement, number of readjustments and total radiation dose to each patient were recorded. The performance level was evaluated on a five-point scale (5-1: excellent-poor). The radiation doses were compared against 30 patients with 48 lesions (control) treated without robotic assistance. Thermal ablation was successfully completed in 20 patients with 40 lesions and confirmed on multiphasic contrast-enhanced CT. No procedure related complications were noted in this study. The average number of needle readjustment was 0.8 ± 0.8. The total CT dose (DLP) for the entire robotic assisted thermal ablation was 1382 ± 536 mGy.cm, while the CT fluoroscopic dose (DLP) per lesion was 352 ± 228 mGy.cm. There was no statistically significant (p > 0.05) dose reduction found between the robotic-assisted versus the conventional method. This study revealed that robotic-assisted planning and needle placement appears to be safe, with high accuracy and a comparable radiation dose to patients. (orig.)

Robotic-assisted thermal ablation of liver tumours

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abdullah, Basri Johan Jeet; Yeong, Chai Hong [University of Malaya, Department of Biomedical Imaging and University of Malaya Research Imaging Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); University of Malaya, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Goh, Khean Lee [University of Malaya, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Yoong, Boon Koon [University of Malaya, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Ho, Gwo Fuang [University of Malaya, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Yim, Carolyn Chue Wai [University of Malaya, Department of Anesthesia, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Kulkarni, Anjali [Perfint Healthcare Corporation, Florence, OR (United States)

2015-01-15

This study aimed to assess the technical success, radiation dose, safety and performance level of liver thermal ablation using a computed tomography (CT)-guided robotic positioning system. Radiofrequency and microwave ablation of liver tumours were performed on 20 patients (40 lesions) with the assistance of a CT-guided robotic positioning system. The accuracy of probe placement, number of readjustments and total radiation dose to each patient were recorded. The performance level was evaluated on a five-point scale (5-1: excellent-poor). The radiation doses were compared against 30 patients with 48 lesions (control) treated without robotic assistance. Thermal ablation was successfully completed in 20 patients with 40 lesions and confirmed on multiphasic contrast-enhanced CT. No procedure related complications were noted in this study. The average number of needle readjustment was 0.8 ± 0.8. The total CT dose (DLP) for the entire robotic assisted thermal ablation was 1382 ± 536 mGy.cm, while the CT fluoroscopic dose (DLP) per lesion was 352 ± 228 mGy.cm. There was no statistically significant (p > 0.05) dose reduction found between the robotic-assisted versus the conventional method. This study revealed that robotic-assisted planning and needle placement appears to be safe, with high accuracy and a comparable radiation dose to patients. (orig.)

Interactive Exploration Robots: Human-Robotic Collaboration and Interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Terry

2017-01-01

For decades, NASA has employed different operational approaches for human and robotic missions. Human spaceflight missions to the Moon and in low Earth orbit have relied upon near-continuous communication with minimal time delays. During these missions, astronauts and mission control communicate interactively to perform tasks and resolve problems in real-time. In contrast, deep-space robotic missions are designed for operations in the presence of significant communication delay - from tens of minutes to hours. Consequently, robotic missions typically employ meticulously scripted and validated command sequences that are intermittently uplinked to the robot for independent execution over long periods. Over the next few years, however, we will see increasing use of robots that blend these two operational approaches. These interactive exploration robots will be remotely operated by humans on Earth or from a spacecraft. These robots will be used to support astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), to conduct new missions to the Moon, and potentially to enable remote exploration of planetary surfaces in real-time. In this talk, I will discuss the technical challenges associated with building and operating robots in this manner, along with lessons learned from research conducted with the ISS and in the field.

3D force control for robotic-assisted beating heart surgery based on viscoelastic tissue model.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Chao; Moreira, Pedro; Zemiti, Nabil; Poignet, Philippe

2011-01-01

Current cardiac surgery faces the challenging problem of heart beating motion even with the help of mechanical stabilizer which makes delicate operation on the heart surface difficult. Motion compensation methods for robotic-assisted beating heart surgery have been proposed recently in literature, but research on force control for such kind of surgery has hardly been reported. Moreover, the viscoelasticity property of the interaction between organ tissue and robotic instrument further complicates the force control design which is much easier in other applications by assuming the interaction model to be elastic (industry, stiff object manipulation, etc.). In this work, we present a three-dimensional force control method for robotic-assisted beating heart surgery taking into consideration of the viscoelastic interaction property. Performance studies based on our D2M2 robot and 3D heart beating motion information obtained through Da Vinci™ system are provided.

Adaptive training algorithm for robot-assisted upper-arm rehabilitation, applicable to individualised and therapeutic human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Chemuturi, Radhika; Amirabdollahian, Farshid; Dautenhahn, Kerstin

2013-09-28

Rehabilitation robotics is progressing towards developing robots that can be used as advanced tools to augment the role of a therapist. These robots are capable of not only offering more frequent and more accessible therapies but also providing new insights into treatment effectiveness based on their ability to measure interaction parameters. A requirement for having more advanced therapies is to identify how robots can 'adapt' to each individual's needs at different stages of recovery. Hence, our research focused on developing an adaptive interface for the GENTLE/A rehabilitation system. The interface was based on a lead-lag performance model utilising the interaction between the human and the robot. The goal of the present study was to test the adaptability of the GENTLE/A system to the performance of the user. Point-to-point movements were executed using the HapticMaster (HM) robotic arm, the main component of the GENTLE/A rehabilitation system. The points were displayed as balls on the screen and some of the points also had a real object, providing a test-bed for the human-robot interaction (HRI) experiment. The HM was operated in various modes to test the adaptability of the GENTLE/A system based on the leading/lagging performance of the user. Thirty-two healthy participants took part in the experiment comprising of a training phase followed by the actual-performance phase. The leading or lagging role of the participant could be used successfully to adjust the duration required by that participant to execute point-to-point movements, in various modes of robot operation and under various conditions. The adaptability of the GENTLE/A system was clearly evident from the durations recorded. The regression results showed that the participants required lower execution times with the help from a real object when compared to just a virtual object. The 'reaching away' movements were longer to execute when compared to the 'returning towards' movements irrespective of the

Multi-Axis Force Sensor for Human-Robot Interaction Sensing in a Rehabilitation Robotic Device.

Science.gov (United States)

Grosu, Victor; Grosu, Svetlana; Vanderborght, Bram; Lefeber, Dirk; Rodriguez-Guerrero, Carlos

2017-06-05

Human-robot interaction sensing is a compulsory feature in modern robotic systems where direct contact or close collaboration is desired. Rehabilitation and assistive robotics are fields where interaction forces are required for both safety and increased control performance of the device with a more comfortable experience for the user. In order to provide an efficient interaction feedback between the user and rehabilitation device, high performance sensing units are demanded. This work introduces a novel design of a multi-axis force sensor dedicated for measuring pelvis interaction forces in a rehabilitation exoskeleton device. The sensor is conceived such that it has different sensitivity characteristics for the three axes of interest having also movable parts in order to allow free rotations and limit crosstalk errors. Integrated sensor electronics make it easy to acquire and process data for a real-time distributed system architecture. Two of the developed sensors are integrated and tested in a complex gait rehabilitation device for safe and compliant control.

Advancements in robotic-assisted thoracic surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Steenwyk, Brad; Lyerly, Ralph

2012-12-01

Advancements in robotic-assisted thoracic surgery present potential advantages for patients as well as new challenges for the anesthesia and surgery teams. This article describes the major aspects of the surgical approach for the most commonly performed robotic-assisted thoracic surgical procedures as well as the pertinent preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative anesthetic concerns. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Da Vinci Xi Robot-Assisted Penetrating Keratoplasty.

Science.gov (United States)

Chammas, Jimmy; Sauer, Arnaud; Pizzuto, Joëlle; Pouthier, Fabienne; Gaucher, David; Marescaux, Jacques; Mutter, Didier; Bourcier, Tristan

2017-06-01

This study aims (1) to investigate the feasibility of robot-assisted penetrating keratoplasty (PK) using the new Da Vinci Xi Surgical System and (2) to report what we believe to be the first use of this system in experimental eye surgery. Robot-assisted PK procedures were performed on human corneal transplants using the Da Vinci Xi Surgical System. After an 8-mm corneal trephination, four interrupted sutures and one 10.0 monofilament running suture were made. For each procedure, duration and successful completion of the surgery as well as any unexpected events were assessed. The depth of the corneal sutures was checked postoperatively using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Robot-assisted PK was successfully performed on 12 corneas. The Da Vinci Xi Surgical System provided the necessary dexterity to perform the different steps of surgery. The mean duration of the procedures was 43.4 ± 8.9 minutes (range: 28.5-61.1 minutes). There were no unexpected intraoperative events. SD-OCT confirmed that the sutures were placed at the appropriate depth. We confirm the feasibility of robot-assisted PK with the new Da Vinci Surgical System and report the first use of the Xi model in experimental eye surgery. Operative time of robot-assisted PK surgery is now close to that of conventional manual surgery due to both improvement of the optical system and the presence of microsurgical instruments. Experimentations will allow the advantages of robot-assisted microsurgery to be identified while underlining the improvements and innovations necessary for clinical use.

Evolution of robotic nephrectomy for living donation: from hand-assisted to totally robotic technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Giacomoni, Alessandro; Di Sandro, Stefano; Lauterio, Andrea; Concone, Giacomo; Mangoni, Iacopo; Mihaylov, Plamen; Tripepi, Matteo; De Carlis, Luciano

2014-09-01

The application of robotic-assisted surgery offers EndoWrist instruments and 3-D visualization of the operative field, which are improvements over traditional laparoscopy. The results of the few studies published so far have shown that living donor nephrectomy using the robot-assisted technique is safe, feasible, and offers advantages to patients. Since November 2009, 16 patients have undergone robotic-assisted living donor nephrectomy at our Institute. Patients were divided into two groups according to the surgical technique adopted for the procedure: Group A, hand-assisted robotic nephrectomy (eight patients); Group B, totally robotic nephrectomy (eight patients). Intra-operative bleeding was similar in the two groups (90 vs 100 mL for Group A and B, respectively). Median warm ischemia time was significantly shorter in Group A (2.3 vs 5.1 min for Group A and B, respectively, P-value = 0.05). Switching to the open procedure was never required. Median operative time was not significantly longer in Group A than Group B (275 min vs 250 min, respectively). Robotic assisted living kidney recovery is a safe and effective procedure. Considering the overall technical, clinical, and feasibility aspects of living kidney donation, we believe that the robotic assisted technique is the method of choice for surgeon's comfort and donors' safety. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Exploiting Child-Robot Aesthetic Interaction for a Social Robot

OpenAIRE

Lee, Jae-Joon; Kim, Dae-Won; Kang, Bo-Yeong

2012-01-01

A social robot interacts and communicates with humans by using the embodied knowledge gained from interactions with its social environment. In recent years, emotion has emerged as a popular concept for designing social robots. Several studies on social robots reported an increase in robot sociability through emotional imitative interactions between the robot and humans. In this paper conventional emotional interactions are extended by exploiting the aesthetic theories that the sociability of ...

Intuitive adaptive orientation control of assistive robots for people living with upper limb disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Vu, Dinh-Son; Allard, Ulysse Cote; Gosselin, Clement; Routhier, Francois; Gosselin, Benoit; Campeau-Lecours, Alexandre

2017-07-01

Robotic assistive devices enhance the autonomy of individuals living with physical disabilities in their day-to-day life. Although the first priority for such devices is safety, they must also be intuitive and efficient from an engineering point of view in order to be adopted by a broad range of users. This is especially true for assistive robotic arms, as they are used for the complex control tasks of daily living. One challenge in the control of such assistive robots is the management of the end-effector orientation which is not always intuitive for the human operator, especially for neophytes. This paper presents a novel orientation control algorithm designed for robotic arms in the context of human-robot interaction. This work aims at making the control of the robot's orientation easier and more intuitive for the user, in particular, individuals living with upper limb disabilities. The performance and intuitiveness of the proposed orientation control algorithm is assessed through two experiments with 25 able-bodied subjects and shown to significantly improve on both aspects.

Robot-assisted urologic surgery in 2010 - Advancements and future outlook

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paurush Babbar

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Robotic surgery is a cutting edge and minimally invasive procedure, which has generated a great deal of excitement in the urologic community. While there has been much advancement in this emerging technology, it is safe to say that robotic urologic surgery holds tremendous potential for progress in the near future. Hence, it is paramount that urologists stay up-to-date regarding new developments in the realm of robotics with respect to novel applications, limitations and opportunities for incorporation into their practice. Robot-assisted surgery provides an enhanced 3D view, increased magnification of the surgical field, better manual dexterity, relatively bloodless field, elimination of surgeon′s tremor, reduction in a surgeon′s fatigue and mitigation of scattered light. All these factors translate into greater precision of surgical dissection, which is imperative in providing better intraoperative and postoperative outcomes. Pioneering work assessing the feasibility of robotic surgery in urology began in the early 2000′s with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy and has since expanded to procedures such as robot-assisted radical cystectomy, robot-assisted partial nephrectomy, robot-assisted nephroureterectomy and robot-assisted pyeloplasty. A MEDLINE search was used to identify recent articles (within the last two years and publications of specific importance, which highlighted the recent developments and future direction of robotics. This review will use the aforementioned urologic surgeries as vehicles to evaluate the current status and future role of robotics in the advancement of the field of urology.

Robot-assisted surgery: the future is here.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerhardus, Diana

2003-01-01

According to L. Wiley Nifong, director of robotic surgery at East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine, "Nationally, only one-fourth of the 15 million surgeries performed each year are done with small incisions or what doctors call 'minimally invasive surgery'." Robots could raise that number substantially (Stark 2002). Currently, healthcare organizations use robot technology for thoracic, abdominal, pelvic, and neurological surgical procedures. Minimally invasive surgery reduces the amount of inpatient hospital days, and the computer in the system filters any hand tremors a physician may have during the surgery. The use of robot-assisted surgery improves quality of care because the patient experiences less pain after the surgery. Robot-assisted surgery demonstrates definite advantages for the patient, physician, and hospital; however, healthcare organizations in the United States have yet to acquire the technology because of implementation costs and the lack of FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval for using the technology for certain types of heart procedures. This article focuses on robot-assisted surgery advantages to patients, physicians, and hospitals as well as on the disadvantages to physicians. In addition, the article addresses implementation costs, which creates financial hurdles for most healthcare organizations; offers recommendations for administrators to embrace this technology for strategic positioning; and enumerates possible roles for robots in medicine.

Physical human-robot interaction of an active pelvis orthosis: toward ergonomic assessment of wearable robots.

Science.gov (United States)

d'Elia, Nicolò; Vanetti, Federica; Cempini, Marco; Pasquini, Guido; Parri, Andrea; Rabuffetti, Marco; Ferrarin, Maurizio; Molino Lova, Raffaele; Vitiello, Nicola

2017-04-14

In human-centered robotics, exoskeletons are becoming relevant for addressing needs in the healthcare and industrial domains. Owing to their close interaction with the user, the safety and ergonomics of these systems are critical design features that require systematic evaluation methodologies. Proper transfer of mechanical power requires optimal tuning of the kinematic coupling between the robotic and anatomical joint rotation axes. We present the methods and results of an experimental evaluation of the physical interaction with an active pelvis orthosis (APO). This device was designed to effectively assist in hip flexion-extension during locomotion with a minimum impact on the physiological human kinematics, owing to a set of passive degrees of freedom for self-alignment of the human and robotic hip flexion-extension axes. Five healthy volunteers walked on a treadmill at different speeds without and with the APO under different levels of assistance. The user-APO physical interaction was evaluated in terms of: (i) the deviation of human lower-limb joint kinematics when wearing the APO with respect to the physiological behavior (i.e., without the APO); (ii) relative displacements between the APO orthotic shells and the corresponding body segments; and (iii) the discrepancy between the kinematics of the APO and the wearer's hip joints. The results show: (i) negligible interference of the APO in human kinematics under all the experimented conditions; (ii) small (i.e., ergonomics assessment of wearable robots.

Interaction with Soft Robotic Tentacles

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Jonas

2018-01-01

Soft robotics technology has been proposed for a number of applications that involve human-robot interaction. In this tabletop demonstration it is possible to interact with two soft robotic platforms that have been used in human-robot interaction experiments (also accepted to HRI'18 as a Late...

Robot-assisted procedures in pediatric neurosurgery.

Science.gov (United States)

De Benedictis, Alessandro; Trezza, Andrea; Carai, Andrea; Genovese, Elisabetta; Procaccini, Emidio; Messina, Raffaella; Randi, Franco; Cossu, Silvia; Esposito, Giacomo; Palma, Paolo; Amante, Paolina; Rizzi, Michele; Marras, Carlo Efisio

2017-05-01

OBJECTIVE During the last 3 decades, robotic technology has rapidly spread across several surgical fields due to the continuous evolution of its versatility, stability, dexterity, and haptic properties. Neurosurgery pioneered the development of robotics, with the aim of improving the quality of several procedures requiring a high degree of accuracy and safety. Moreover, robot-guided approaches are of special interest in pediatric patients, who often have altered anatomy and challenging relationships between the diseased and eloquent structures. Nevertheless, the use of robots has been rarely reported in children. In this work, the authors describe their experience using the ROSA device (Robotized Stereotactic Assistant) in the neurosurgical management of a pediatric population. METHODS Between 2011 and 2016, 116 children underwent ROSA-assisted procedures for a variety of diseases (epilepsy, brain tumors, intra- or extraventricular and tumor cysts, obstructive hydrocephalus, and movement and behavioral disorders). Each patient received accurate preoperative planning of optimal trajectories, intraoperative frameless registration, surgical treatment using specific instruments held by the robotic arm, and postoperative CT or MR imaging. RESULTS The authors performed 128 consecutive surgeries, including implantation of 386 electrodes for stereo-electroencephalography (36 procedures), neuroendoscopy (42 procedures), stereotactic biopsy (26 procedures), pallidotomy (12 procedures), shunt placement (6 procedures), deep brain stimulation procedures (3 procedures), and stereotactic cyst aspiration (3 procedures). For each procedure, the authors analyzed and discussed accuracy, timing, and complications. CONCLUSIONS To the best their knowledge, the authors present the largest reported series of pediatric neurosurgical cases assisted by robotic support. The ROSA system provided improved safety and feasibility of minimally invasive approaches, thus optimizing the surgical

Biomechanical effects of robot assisted walking on knee joint kinematics and muscle activation pattern.

Science.gov (United States)

Thangavel, Pavithra; Vidhya, S; Li, Junhua; Chew, Effie; Bezerianos, Anastasios; Yu, Haoyong

2017-07-01

Since manual rehabilitation therapy can be taxing for both the patient and the physiotherapist, a gait rehabilitation robot has been built to reduce the physical strain and increase the efficacy of the rehabilitation therapy. The prototype of the gait rehabilitation robot is designed to provide assistance while walking for patients with abnormal gait pattern and it can also be used for rehabilitation therapy to restore an individual's normal gait pattern by aiding motor recovery. The Gait Rehabilitation Robot uses gait event based synchronization, which enables the exoskeleton to provide synchronous assistance during walking that aims to reduce the lower-limb muscle activation. This study emphasizes on the biomechanical effects of assisted walking on the lower limb by analyzing the EMG signal, knee joint kinematics data that was collected from the right leg during the various experimental conditions. The analysis of the measured data shows an improved knee joint trajectory and reduction in muscle activity with assistance. The result of this study does not only assess the functionality of the exoskeleton but also provides a profound understanding of the human-robot interaction by studying the effects of assistance on the lower limb.

Multimodal human-machine interaction for service robots in home-care environments

OpenAIRE

Goetze, Stefan; Fischer, S.; Moritz, Niko; Appell, Jens-E.; Wallhoff, Frank

2012-01-01

This contribution focuses on multimodal interaction techniques for a mobile communication and assistance system on a robot platform. The system comprises of acoustic, visual and haptic input modalities. Feedback is given to the user by a graphical user interface and a speech synthesis system. By this, multimodal and natural communication with the robot system is possible.

Robot Teleoperation and Perception Assistance with a Virtual Holographic Display

Science.gov (United States)

Goddard, Charles O.

2012-01-01

Teleoperation of robots in space from Earth has historically been dfficult. Speed of light delays make direct joystick-type control infeasible, so it is desirable to command a robot in a very high-level fashion. However, in order to provide such an interface, knowledge of what objects are in the robot's environment and how they can be interacted with is required. In addition, many tasks that would be desirable to perform are highly spatial, requiring some form of six degree of freedom input. These two issues can be combined, allowing the user to assist the robot's perception by identifying the locations of objects in the scene. The zSpace system, a virtual holographic environment, provides a virtual three-dimensional space superimposed over real space and a stylus tracking position and rotation inside of it. Using this system, a possible interface for this sort of robot control is proposed.

Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy is a safe procedure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Frederik Birkebæk; Berg, Kasper Drimer; Hvarness, Helle

2013-01-01

We present our departmental experience with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy and describe complications and early results for the first 239 consecutive patients.......We present our departmental experience with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy and describe complications and early results for the first 239 consecutive patients....

Virtual modeling of robot-assisted manipulations in abdominal surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Berelavichus, Stanislav V; Karmazanovsky, Grigory G; Shirokov, Vadim S; Kubyshkin, Valeriy A; Kriger, Andrey G; Kondratyev, Evgeny V; Zakharova, Olga P

2012-06-27

To determine the effectiveness of using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) data in preoperative planning of robot-assisted surgery. Fourteen patients indicated for surgery underwent MDCT using 64 and 256-slice MDCT. Before the examination, a specially constructed navigation net was placed on the patient's anterior abdominal wall. Processing of MDCT data was performed on a Brilliance Workspace 4 (Philips). Virtual vectors that imitate robotic and assistant ports were placed on the anterior abdominal wall of the 3D model of the patient, considering the individual anatomy of the patient and the technical capabilities of robotic arms. Sites for location of the ports were directed by projection on the roentgen-positive tags of the navigation net. There were no complications observed during surgery or in the post-operative period. We were able to reduce robotic arm interference during surgery. The surgical area was optimal for robotic and assistant manipulators without any need for reinstallation of the trocars. This method allows modeling of the main steps in robot-assisted intervention, optimizing operation of the manipulator and lowering the risk of injuries to internal organs.

From Human-Computer Interaction to Human-Robot Social Interaction

OpenAIRE

Toumi, Tarek; Zidani, Abdelmadjid

2014-01-01

Human-Robot Social Interaction became one of active research fields in which researchers from different areas propose solutions and directives leading robots to improve their interactions with humans. In this paper we propose to introduce works in both human robot interaction and human computer interaction and to make a bridge between them, i.e. to integrate emotions and capabilities concepts of the robot in human computer model to become adequate for human robot interaction and discuss chall...

Arm reduced robotic-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy with transvaginal cuff closure.

Science.gov (United States)

Bodur, Serkan; Dede, Murat; Fidan, Ulas; Firatligil, Burcin F; Ulubay, Mustafa; Ozturk, Mustafa; Yenen, Mufit C

2017-09-01

The use of robotics for benign etiology in gynecology has not proven to be more beneficial when compared to traditional laparoscopy. The major concern regarding robotic hysterectomy stems from its high cost. To evaluate the clinical utility and effectiveness of one-arm reduced robotic-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy as a cost-effective surgical option for total robotic hysterectomy. A sample population of 54 women who underwent robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery for benign gynecologic indications was evaluated, and two groups were identified: (1) the two-armed robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery group (n = 38 patients), and (2) the three-armed robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery group (n = 16 patients). An increased cost was observed when three-armed robotic surgery was employed for benign gynecologic surgery (p < 0.001). The cost reduction observed in the study group was primarily derived from one robotic arm reduction and vaginal closure of the cuff. This cost reduction was achieved without an increase in complication rates or undesirable postoperative outcomes. An estimated profit between $399.5 and $421.5 was made for each patient depending on the suture material chosen for cuff closure. Two-armed surgery resulted in an 18.6% reduction in procedure-specific costs for robotic hysterectomy. Two-armed robotic-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy appears to be a cost-effective solution for robotic gynecologic surgery. This surgical solution can be performed as effectively as classical three-armed robotic hysterectomies for benign indications without the risk of increased surgical-related morbidities. This approach has the potential to be a widely preferred surgical approach in medical communities where cost reduction is one of the primary determinants of surgery type.

From Child-Robot Interaction to Child-Robot-Therapist Interaction: A Case Study in Autism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Giannopulu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Troubles in social communication as well as deficits in the cognitive treatment of emotions are supposed to be a fundamental part of autism. We present a case study based on multimodal interaction between a mobile robot and a child with autism in spontaneous, free game play. This case study tells us that the robot mediates the interaction between the autistic child and therapist once the robot-child interaction has been established. In addition, the child uses the robot as a mediator to express positive emotion playing with the therapist. It is thought that the three-pronged interaction i.e., child-robot-therapist could better facilitate the transfer of social and emotional abilities to real life settings. Robot therapy has a high potential to improve the condition of brain activity in autistic children.

Laparoscopy-assisted Robotic Myomectomy Using the DA Vinci System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shih-Peng Mao

2007-06-01

Conclusion: Minimally invasive surgery is the trend of the future. Robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery is a new technique for myomectomy. This robotic system provides a three-dimensional operative field and an easy-to-use control panel, which may be of great help when applying the suturing techniques and may shorten the learning curve. More experience with and long-term follow-up of robotic surgery may be warranted to further validate the role the robot-assisted approach in gynecologic surgery.

Effects of realistic force feedback in a robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery system.

Science.gov (United States)

Moradi Dalvand, Mohsen; Shirinzadeh, Bijan; Nahavandi, Saeid; Smith, Julian

2014-06-01

Robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery systems not only have the advantages of traditional laparoscopic procedures but also restore the surgeon's hand-eye coordination and improve the surgeon's precision by filtering hand tremors. Unfortunately, these benefits have come at the expense of the surgeon's ability to feel. Several research efforts have already attempted to restore this feature and study the effects of force feedback in robotic systems. The proposed methods and studies have some shortcomings. The main focus of this research is to overcome some of these limitations and to study the effects of force feedback in palpation in a more realistic fashion. A parallel robot assisted minimally invasive surgery system (PRAMiSS) with force feedback capabilities was employed to study the effects of realistic force feedback in palpation of artificial tissue samples. PRAMiSS is capable of actually measuring the tip/tissue interaction forces directly from the surgery site. Four sets of experiments using only vision feedback, only force feedback, simultaneous force and vision feedback and direct manipulation were conducted to evaluate the role of sensory feedback from sideways tip/tissue interaction forces with a scale factor of 100% in characterising tissues of varying stiffness. Twenty human subjects were involved in the experiments for at least 1440 trials. Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were employed to statistically analyse the experimental results. Providing realistic force feedback in robotic assisted surgery systems improves the quality of tissue characterization procedures. Force feedback capability also increases the certainty of characterizing soft tissues compared with direct palpation using the lateral sides of index fingers. The force feedback capability can improve the quality of palpation and characterization of soft tissues of varying stiffness by restoring sense of touch in robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery operations.

Socially assistive robots : a comprehensive approach to extending independent living

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Johnson, D.O.; Cuijpers, R.H.; Juola, J.F.; Torta, E.; Simonov, M.; Frisiello, A.; Bazzani, M.; Yan, W.; Weber, C.; Wermter, S.; Meins, N.; Oberzaucher, J.; Panek, P. (Paul); Edelmayer, G.; Mayer, P.; Beck, C.

2014-01-01

Demographic developments have challenged our research on how to assist elderly people by using robots. The KSERA (Knowledgeable SErvice Robots for Aging) project integrates smart home technology and a socially-assistive robot to extend independent living for elderly people, in particular those with

A Novel Bioinspired Vision System: A Step toward Real-Time Human-Robot Interactions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdul Rahman Hafiz

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Building a human-like robot that could be involved in our daily lives is a dream of many scientists. Achieving a sophisticated robot's vision system, which can enhance the robot's real-time interaction ability with the human, is one of the main keys toward realizing such an autonomous robot. In this work, we are suggesting a bioinspired vision system that helps to develop an advanced human-robot interaction in an autonomous humanoid robot. First, we enhance the robot's vision accuracy online by applying a novel dynamic edge detection algorithm abstracted from the rules that the horizontal cells play in the mammalian retina. Second, in order to support the first algorithm, we improve the robot's tracking ability by designing a variant photoreceptors distribution corresponding to what exists in the human vision system. The experimental results verified the validity of the model. The robot could have a clear vision in real time and build a mental map that assisted it to be aware of the frontal users and to develop a positive interaction with them.

Robots with a gentle touch: advances in assistive robotics and prosthetics.

Science.gov (United States)

Harwin, W S

1999-01-01

As healthcare costs rise and an aging population makes an increased demand on services, so new techniques must be introduced to promote an individuals independence and provide these services. Robots can now be designed so they can alter their dynamic properties changing from stiff to flaccid, or from giving no resistance to movement, to damping any large and sudden movements. This has some strong implications in health care in particular for rehabilitation where a robot must work in conjunction with an individual, and might guiding or assist a persons arm movements, or might be commanded to perform some set of autonomous actions. This paper presents the state-of-the-art of rehabilitation robots with examples from prosthetics, aids for daily living and physiotherapy. In all these situations there is the potential for the interaction to be non-passive with a resulting potential for the human/machine/environment combination to become unstable. To understand this instability we must develop better models of the human motor system and fit these models with realistic parameters. This paper concludes with a discussion of this problem and overviews some human models that can be used to facilitate the design of the human/machine interfaces.

The immediate effects of robot-assistance on energy consumption and cardiorespiratory load during walking compared to walking without robot-assistance: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Lefeber, Nina; Swinnen, Eva; Kerckhofs, Eric

2017-10-01

The integration of sufficient cardiovascular stress into robot-assisted gait (RAG) training could combine the benefits of both RAG and aerobic training. The aim was to summarize literature data on the immediate effects of RAG compared to walking without robot-assistance on metabolic-, cardiorespiratory- and fatigue-related parameters. PubMed and Web of Science were searched for eligible articles till February 2016. Means, SDs and significance values were extracted. Effect sizes were calculated. Fourteen studies were included, concerning 155 participants (85 healthy subjects, 39 stroke and 31 spinal cord injury patients), 9 robots (2 end-effectors, 1 treadmill-based and 6 wearable exoskeletons), and 7 outcome parameters (mostly oxygen consumption and heart rate). Overall, metabolic and cardiorespiratory parameters were lower during RAG compared to walking without robot-assistance (moderate to large effect sizes). In healthy subjects, when no body-weight support (BWS) was provided, RAG with an end-effector device was more energy demanding than walking overground (p > .05, large effect sizes). Generally, results suggest that RAG is less energy-consuming and cardiorespiratory stressful than walking without robot-assistance, but results depend on factors such as robot type, walking speed, BWS and effort. Additional research is needed to draw firm conclusions. Implications for Rehabilitation Awareness of the energy consumption and cardiorespiratory load of robot-assisted gait (RAG) training is important in the rehabilitation of (neurological) patients with impaired cardiorespiratory fitness and patients who are at risk of cardiovascular diseases. On the other hand, the integration of sufficient cardiometabolic stress in RAG training could combine the effects of both RAG and aerobic training. Energy consumption and cardiorespiratory load during walking with robot-assistance seems to depend on factors such as robot type, walking speed, body-weight support or amount of

Emotion based human-robot interaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Berns Karsten

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Human-machine interaction is a major challenge in the development of complex humanoid robots. In addition to verbal communication the use of non-verbal cues such as hand, arm and body gestures or mimics can improve the understanding of the intention of the robot. On the other hand, by perceiving such mechanisms of a human in a typical interaction scenario the humanoid robot can adapt its interaction skills in a better way. In this work, the perception system of two social robots, ROMAN and ROBIN of the RRLAB of the TU Kaiserslautern, is presented in the range of human-robot interaction.

Care routines, feeding assistive robotics and the disabled body

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nickelsen, Niels Christian Mossfeldt

Care routines, feeding assistive robotics and the disabled body Niels Christian Mossfeldt NickelsenAbstract for 4S, Barcelona, track 62. Short abstract 300 signs including spacesSeveral feeding assistive robotics are described in the literature, but few studies have explored the reception. I report...... from an ethnographic study of the British Neater-Eater robot in a housing institution for the disabled. Due to a number of values the implementation is something of a balancing act.Long abstract 248 wordsSeveral feeding assistive robotics (FAR) are described in the literature; Neater-Eater; My Spoon...... the result is demeaning (Nickelsen, 2013). During the last decade feeding has broadly been eliminated from nurses’ responsibilities and relegated to non-professionals (Martinsen et al. 2007). It has become low status work and as such it is currently robotized. Despite the lack of knowledge...

Application requirements for Robotic Nursing Assistants in hospital environments

Science.gov (United States)

Cremer, Sven; Doelling, Kris; Lundberg, Cody L.; McNair, Mike; Shin, Jeongsik; Popa, Dan

2016-05-01

In this paper we report on analysis toward identifying design requirements for an Adaptive Robotic Nursing Assistant (ARNA). Specifically, the paper focuses on application requirements for ARNA, envisioned as a mobile assistive robot that can navigate hospital environments to perform chores in roles such as patient sitter and patient walker. The role of a sitter is primarily related to patient observation from a distance, and fetching objects at the patient's request, while a walker provides physical assistance for ambulation and rehabilitation. The robot will be expected to not only understand nurse and patient intent but also close the decision loop by automating several routine tasks. As a result, the robot will be equipped with sensors such as distributed pressure sensitive skins, 3D range sensors, and so on. Modular sensor and actuator hardware configured in the form of several multi-degree-of-freedom manipulators, and a mobile base are expected to be deployed in reconfigurable platforms for physical assistance tasks. Furthermore, adaptive human-machine interfaces are expected to play a key role, as they directly impact the ability of robots to assist nurses in a dynamic and unstructured environment. This paper discusses required tasks for the ARNA robot, as well as sensors and software infrastructure to carry out those tasks in the aspects of technical resource availability, gaps, and needed experimental studies.

Review: Robot assisted laparoscopic surgery in gynaecological ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Review: Robot assisted laparoscopic surgery in gynaecological oncology. ... robot suggests "to be able to act without human interference and being able to ... or in space), its use as telesurgery is still very limited and practically not feasible.

Mobile app for human-interaction with sitter robots

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Sumit Kumar; Sahu, Ankita; Popa, Dan O.

2017-05-01

Human environments are often unstructured and unpredictable, thus making the autonomous operation of robots in such environments is very difficult. Despite many remaining challenges in perception, learning, and manipulation, more and more studies involving assistive robots have been carried out in recent years. In hospital environments, and in particular in patient rooms, there are well-established practices with respect to the type of furniture, patient services, and schedule of interventions. As a result, adding a robot into semi-structured hospital environments is an easier problem to tackle, with results that could have positive benefits to the quality of patient care and the help that robots can offer to nursing staff. When working in a healthcare facility, robots need to interact with patients and nurses through Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) that are intuitive to use, they should maintain awareness of surroundings, and offer safety guarantees for humans. While fully autonomous operation for robots is not yet technically feasible, direct teleoperation control of the robot would also be extremely cumbersome, as it requires expert user skills, and levels of concentration not available to many patients. Therefore, in our current study we present a traded control scheme, in which the robot and human both perform expert tasks. The human-robot communication and control scheme is realized through a mobile tablet app that can be customized for robot sitters in hospital environments. The role of the mobile app is to augment the verbal commands given to a robot through natural speech, camera and other native interfaces, while providing failure mode recovery options for users. Our app can access video feed and sensor data from robots, assist the user with decision making during pick and place operations, monitor the user health over time, and provides conversational dialogue during sitting sessions. In this paper, we present the software and hardware framework that

ROILA : RObot Interaction LAnguage

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mubin, O.

2011-01-01

The number of robots in our society is increasing rapidly. The number of service robots that interact with everyday people already outnumbers industrial robots. The easiest way to communicate with these service robots, such as Roomba or Nao, would be natural speech. However, the limitations

[Robot assisted Frykman-Goldberg procedure. Case report].

Science.gov (United States)

Zubieta-O'Farrill, Gregorio; Ramírez-Ramírez, Moisés; Villanueva-Sáenz, Eduardo

2017-12-01

Rectal prolapse is defined as the protrusion of the rectal wall through the anal canal; with a prevalence of less than 0.5%. The most frequent symptoms include pain, incomplete defecation sensation with blood and mucus, fecal incontinence and/or constipation. The surgical approach can be perineal or abdominal with the tendency for minimal invasion. Robot-assisted procedures are a novel option that offer technique advantages over open or laparoscopic approaches. 67 year-old female, who presented with rectal prolapse, posterior to an episode of constipation, that required manual reduction, associated with transanal hemorrhage during defecation and occasional fecal incontinence. A RMI defecography was performed that reported complete rectal and uterine prolapse, and cystocele. A robotic assisted Frykman-Goldberg procedure wass performed. There are more than 100 surgical procedures for rectal prolapse treatment. We report the first robot assisted procedure in Mexico. Robotic assisted surgery has the same safety rate as laparoscopic surgery, with the advantages of better instrument mobility, no human hand tremor, better vision, and access to complicated and narrow areas. Robotic surgery as the surgical treatment is a feasible, safe and effective option, there is no difference in recurrence and function compared with laparoscopy. It facilitates the technique, improves nerve preservation and bleeding. Further clinical, prospective and randomized studies to compare the different minimal invasive approaches, their functional and long term results for this pathology are needed. Copyright © 2016 Academia Mexicana de Cirugía A.C. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

Robotic Assistance by Impedance Compensation for Hand Movements While Manual Welding.

Science.gov (United States)

Erden, Mustafa Suphi; Billard, Aude

2016-11-01

In this paper, we present a robotic assistance scheme which allows for impedance compensation with stiffness, damping, and mass parameters for hand manipulation tasks and we apply it to manual welding. The impedance compensation does not assume a preprogrammed hand trajectory. Rather, the intention of the human for the hand movement is estimated in real time using a smooth Kalman filter. The movement is restricted by compensatory virtual impedance in the directions perpendicular to the estimated direction of movement. With airbrush painting experiments, we test three sets of values for the impedance parameters as inspired from impedance measurements with manual welding. We apply the best of the tested sets for assistance in manual welding and perform welding experiments with professional and novice welders. We contrast three conditions: 1) welding with the robot's assistance; 2) with the robot when the robot is passive; and 3) welding without the robot. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the assistance through quantitative measures of both task performance and perceived user's satisfaction. The performance of both the novice and professional welders improves significantly with robotic assistance compared to welding with a passive robot. The assessment of user satisfaction shows that all novice and most professional welders appreciate the robotic assistance as it suppresses the tremors in the directions perpendicular to the movement for welding.

ROBOT-ASSISTED SURGERY AND ROBOTS EXOSKELETONS FOR REHABILITATION: WORLD TECHNOLOGICAL LEADERS AND PERSPECTIVES OF RUSSIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. V. Cherchenko

2015-01-01

Full Text Available There was analysed the publication and patent activity with regard to two actively developing areas in the field of medical robototronics: robots-exoskeletons for rehabilitation of people with muscoloskeletal disorders and robot-assisted surgery. There was identified discrepancy in the structure of global and national publication and patent flows. There were revealed disadvantages of foreign innovations on robot-assisted surgery, which create prerequisites for promoting import-substituting innovations of domestic engineers. 

Laser assisted robotic surgery in cornea transplantation

Science.gov (United States)

Rossi, Francesca; Micheletti, Filippo; Magni, Giada; Pini, Roberto; Menabuoni, Luca; Leoni, Fabio; Magnani, Bernardo

2017-03-01

Robotic surgery is a reality in several surgical fields, such as in gastrointestinal surgery. In ophthalmic surgery the required high spatial precision is limiting the application of robotic system, and even if several attempts have been designed in the last 10 years, only some application in retinal surgery were tested in animal models. The combination of photonics and robotics can really open new frontiers in minimally invasive surgery, improving the precision, reducing tremor, amplifying scale of motion, and automating the procedure. In this manuscript we present the preliminary results in developing a vision guided robotic platform for laser-assisted anterior eye surgery. The robotic console is composed by a robotic arm equipped with an "end effector" designed to deliver laser light to the anterior corneal surface. The main intended application is for laser welding of corneal tissue in laser assisted penetrating keratoplasty and endothelial keratoplasty. The console is equipped with an integrated vision system. The experiment originates from a clear medical demand in order to improve the efficacy of different surgical procedures: when the prototype will be optimized, other surgical areas will be included in its application, such as neurosurgery, urology and spinal surgery.

An Intelligent Agent-Controlled and Robot-Based Disassembly Assistant

Science.gov (United States)

Jungbluth, Jan; Gerke, Wolfgang; Plapper, Peter

2017-09-01

One key for successful and fluent human-robot-collaboration in disassembly processes is equipping the robot system with higher autonomy and intelligence. In this paper, we present an informed software agent that controls the robot behavior to form an intelligent robot assistant for disassembly purposes. While the disassembly process first depends on the product structure, we inform the agent using a generic approach through product models. The product model is then transformed to a directed graph and used to build, share and define a coarse disassembly plan. To refine the workflow, we formulate “the problem of loosening a connection and the distribution of the work” as a search problem. The created detailed plan consists of a sequence of actions that are used to call, parametrize and execute robot programs for the fulfillment of the assistance. The aim of this research is to equip robot systems with knowledge and skills to allow them to be autonomous in the performance of their assistance to finally improve the ergonomics of disassembly workstations.

Lending a helping hand: toward novel assistive robotic arms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groothuis, Stefan; Stramigioli, Stefano; Carloni, Raffaella

Assistive robotics is an increasingly popular research field, which has led to a large number of commercial and noncommercial systems aimed at assisting physically impaired or elderly users in the activities of daily living. In this article, we propose five criteria based on robotic arm usage

Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Sandor, Aniko; Cross, E. Vincent, II; Chang, Mai Lee

2015-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a discipline investigating the factors affecting the interactions between humans and robots. It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces affect the human's ability to perform tasks effectively and efficiently when working with a robot. By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed to appropriately support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for the design of robotic systems. For efficient and effective remote navigation of a rover, a human operator needs to be aware of the robot's environment. However, during teleoperation, operators may get information about the environment only through a robot's front-mounted camera causing a keyhole effect. The keyhole effect reduces situation awareness which may manifest in navigation issues such as higher number of collisions, missing critical aspects of the environment, or reduced speed. One way to compensate for the keyhole effect and the ambiguities operators experience when they teleoperate a robot is adding multiple cameras and including the robot chassis in the camera view. Augmented reality, such as overlays, can also enhance the way a person sees objects in the environment or in camera views by making them more visible. Scenes can be augmented with integrated telemetry, procedures, or map information. Furthermore, the addition of an exocentric (i.e., third-person) field of view from a camera placed in the robot's environment may provide operators with the additional information needed to gain spatial awareness of the robot. Two research studies investigated possible mitigation approaches to address the keyhole effect: 1) combining the inclusion of the robot chassis in the camera view with augmented reality overlays, and 2) modifying the camera

Does robotic assistance confer an economic benefit during laparoscopic radical nephrectomy?

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, David Y; Monn, M Francesca; Bahler, Clinton D; Sundaram, Chandru P

2014-09-01

While robotic assisted radical nephrectomy is safe with outcomes and complication rates comparable to those of the pure laparoscopic approach, there is little evidence of an economic or clinical benefit. From the 2009 to 2011 Nationwide Inpatient Sample database we identified patients 18 years old or older who underwent radical nephrectomy for primary renal malignancy. Robotic assisted and laparoscopic techniques were noted. Patients treated with the open technique and those with evidence of metastatic disease were excluded from analysis. Descriptive statistics were performed using the chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests, and the Student t-test. Multiple linear regression was done to examine factors associated with increased hospital costs and charges. We identified 24,312 radical nephrectomy cases for study inclusion, of which 7,787 (32%) were performed robotically. There was no demographic difference between robotic assisted and pure laparoscopic radical nephrectomy cases. Median total charges were $47,036 vs $38,068 for robotic assisted vs laparoscopic surgery (p robotic assisted surgery were $15,149 compared to $11,735 for laparoscopic surgery (p robotic assistance conferred an estimated $4,565 and $11,267 increase in hospital costs and charges, respectively, when adjusted for adapted Charlson comorbidity index score, perioperative complications and length of stay (p Robotic assisted radical nephrectomy results in increased medical expense without improving patient morbidity. Assuming surgeon proficiency with pure laparoscopy, robotic technology should be reserved primarily for complex surgeries requiring reconstruction. Traditional laparoscopic techniques should continue to be used for routine radical nephrectomy. Copyright © 2014 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Robot-assisted Heller's myotomy for achalasia in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Altokhais, Tariq; Mandora, Hala; Al-Qahtani, Ayed; Al-Bassam, Abdulrahman

2016-12-01

Achalasia is rare in children. Surgical options include open, laparoscopic and robotic approaches. However, Heller's myotomy remains the treatment of choice. This report describes our experience with robot-assisted Heller's myotomy in children and presents a review of the literature. Included in this study are children who underwent robot-assisted Heller's myotomy for esophageal achalasia via the Da Vinci surgical system between 2004 and 2015 at King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The medical records of these patients were reviewed for demographic data, presenting symptoms, diagnostic modalities, operative procedures, complications, outcomes and follow-ups. Six patients were identified. The age of the patients at surgery ranged between 2 and 12 years (mean 7.1 years). The most common presenting symptoms were dysphagia, vomiting and nocturnal cough. Contrast swallow and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy established a diagnosis of esophageal achalasia in all of the patients. Four patients underwent esophageal dilatation 2-5 times before the definitive procedure. All patients underwent successful robot-assisted Heller's myotomy with concomitant partial posterior fundoplication. The postoperative course was uneventful. Five patients had a complete resolution of the symptoms and one patient improved. The follow-up assessments have been consistent and have ranged from 0.5 to 11 years (mean 4.4 years). Robotic-assisted Heller's myotomy for esophageal achalasia in children is safe and effective and is a suitable alternative to open and laparoscopic approaches.

Da Vinci robot-assisted system for thymectomy: experience of 55 patients in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Jun, Yi; Hao, Li; Demin, Li; Guohua, Dong; Hua, Jing; Yi, Shen

2014-09-01

Da Vinci robot-assisted thymectomy has been used in the past several years in China, however, practical experience in performing this approach in China remains limited. Thus, the study aimed to evaluate the experience of da Vinci robot-assisted thymectomy in China. From June 2010 to December 2012, 55 patients with diseases of the thymus underwent thymectomy using the da Vinci surgical HD robotic system. The clinical data of the da Vinci robot-assisted thymectomies were compared with the data of video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomies in the same period. All da Vinci robot operations were successful. This is a retrospective analysis which demonstrated that compared with video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy in the same period, the clinical outcomes of da Vinci robot-assisted thymectomy were not significantly different. The da Vinci robot-assisted thymectomy is a safe, minimally invasive, and convenient operation, and shows promise for general thoracic surgery in China. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

General surgery residents' perception of robot-assisted procedures during surgical training.

Science.gov (United States)

Farivar, Behzad S; Flannagan, Molly; Leitman, I Michael

2015-01-01

With the continued expansion of robotically assisted procedures, general surgery residents continue to receive more exposure to this new technology as part of their training. There are currently no guidelines or standardized training requirements for robot-assisted procedures during general surgical residency. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of this new technology on general surgery training from the residents' perspective. An anonymous, national, web-based survey was conducted on residents enrolled in general surgery training in 2013. The survey was sent to 240 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-approved general surgery training programs. Overall, 64% of the responding residents were men and had an average age of 29 years. Half of the responses were from postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) and PGY2 residents, and the remainder was from the PGY3 level and above. Overall, 50% of the responses were from university training programs, 32% from university-affiliated programs, and 18% from community-based programs. More than 96% of residents noted the availability of the surgical robot system at their training institution. Overall, 63% of residents indicated that they had participated in robotic surgical cases. Most responded that they had assisted in 10 or fewer robotic cases with the most frequent activities being assisting with robotic trocar placement and docking and undocking the robot. Only 18% reported experience with operating the robotic console. More senior residents (PGY3 and above) were involved in robotic cases compared with junior residents (78% vs 48%, p robotic case. Approximately 64% of residents reported that formal training in robotic surgery was important in residency training and 46% of residents indicated that robotic-assisted cases interfered with resident learning. Only 11% felt that robotic-assisted cases would replace conventional laparoscopic surgery in the future. This study illustrates that although the most residents

Robot-assisted partial nephrectomy in contemporary practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Youssef S. Tanagho

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Laparoscopic renal surgery is associated with reduced blood loss, shorter hospital stay, enhanced cosmesis, and more rapid convalescence relative to open renal surgery. Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy is a minimally invasive, nephron-sparing alternative to laparoscopic radical nephrectomy for the management of small renal masses. While offering similar oncological outcomes to laparoscopic radical nephrectomy, the technical challenges and prolonged learning curve associated with laparoscopic partial nephrectomy limit its wider dissemination. Robot-assisted partial nephrectomy, although still an evolving procedure with no long-term data, has emerged as a viable alternative to laparoscopic partial nephrectomy, with favorable preliminary outcomes. This article provides an overview of the role of robot-assisted partial nephrectomy in the management of renal cell carcinoma. The clinical indications and principles of surgical technique for this procedure are discussed. The oncological, renal functional, and perioperative outcomes of robot-assisted partial nephrectomy are also evaluated, as are complication rates.

Accelerating Robot Development through Integral Analysis of Human-Robot Interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kooijmans, T.; Kanda, T.; Bartneck, C.; Ishiguro, H.; Hagita, N.

2007-01-01

The development of interactive robots is a complicated process, involving a plethora of psychological, technical, and contextual influences. To design a robot capable of operating "intelligently" in everyday situations, one needs a profound understanding of human-robot interaction (HRI). We propose

Home-based tele-assisted robotic rehabilitation of joint impairments in children with cerebral palsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Kai; Ren, Yupeng; Gaebler-Spira, Deborah; Zhang, Li-Qun

2014-01-01

A portable rehabilitation robot incorporating intelligent stretching, robot-guided voluntary movement training with motivating games and tele-rehabilitation was developed to provide convenient and cost-effective rehabilitation to children with cerebral palsy (CP) and extend rehabilitation care beyond hospital. Clinicians interact with the patients remotely for periodic evaluations and updated guidance. The tele-assisted stretching and active movement training was done over 6-week 18 sessions on the impaired ankle of 23 children with CP in their home setting. Treatment effectiveness was evaluated using biomechanical measures and clinical outcome measures. After the tele-assisted home robotic rehabilitation intervention, there were significant increases in the ankle passive and active range of motion, muscle strength, a decrease in spasticity, and increases in balance and selective control assessment of lower-extremity.

Design of robotic leg and physiotherapy (ROLEP) assist with interactive game

Science.gov (United States)

Hasan, A. F.; Husin, M. F. Che; Hashim, M. N.; Rosli, K. A.; Roslim, F. R. A.; Abidin, A. F. Z.

2017-09-01

Injuries in certain parts of the feet can cause a person to have difficulty in walking or running if it is not treated through physiotherapy. In Malaysia, therapy centers only provide a service or the use of basic tools that are not efficient as more sophisticated equipment requires a high cost. In fact, exercise requiring close monitoring physiotherapist are also at a high cost. Therefore, using robot therapy is a new technology that can provide an alternative way to solve this problem. The implementation of this project has produced a robotic physiotherapy which has one degree of freedom, portable and inexpensive way to help the movement of the patient's leg. It covers basic electrical circuits, mechanical components, programming and has been combined with an interactive game as the main driver. ROLEP (Robotic-Leg-Physiotherapy) is able to help patients through the therapy process. It was built using CT-UNO as its microprocessor connected to MD10-C which acted as the motor driver. The interactive game produced by using Unity game software is a key driver in getting rid of boredom and reduce pain. As a result, ROLEP designed can operate well within its range of the patient's weight. It has the advantage of portability and easy to use by the patients. ROLEP expected to help patients undergoing therapy process more efficient and interesting in the process of recovery.

Force Modeling, Identification, and Feedback Control of Robot-Assisted Needle Insertion: A Survey of the Literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chongjun Yang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Robot-assisted surgery is of growing interest in the surgical and engineering communities. The use of robots allows surgery to be performed with precision using smaller instruments and incisions, resulting in shorter healing times. However, using current technology, an operator cannot directly feel the operation because the surgeon-instrument and instrument-tissue interaction force feedbacks are lost during needle insertion. Advancements in force feedback and control not only help reduce tissue deformation and needle deflection but also provide the surgeon with better control over the surgical instruments. The goal of this review is to summarize the key components surrounding the force feedback and control during robot-assisted needle insertion. The literature search was conducted during the middle months of 2017 using mainstream academic search engines with a combination of keywords relevant to the field. In total, 166 articles with valuable contents were analyzed and grouped into five related topics. This survey systemically summarizes the state-of-the-art force control technologies for robot-assisted needle insertion, such as force modeling, measurement, the factors that influence the interaction force, parameter identification, and force control algorithms. All studies show force control is still at its initial stage. The influence factors, needle deflection or planning remain open for investigation in future.

Force Modeling, Identification, and Feedback Control of Robot-Assisted Needle Insertion: A Survey of the Literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Chongjun; Xie, Yu; Liu, Shuang; Sun, Dong

2018-02-12

Robot-assisted surgery is of growing interest in the surgical and engineering communities. The use of robots allows surgery to be performed with precision using smaller instruments and incisions, resulting in shorter healing times. However, using current technology, an operator cannot directly feel the operation because the surgeon-instrument and instrument-tissue interaction force feedbacks are lost during needle insertion. Advancements in force feedback and control not only help reduce tissue deformation and needle deflection but also provide the surgeon with better control over the surgical instruments. The goal of this review is to summarize the key components surrounding the force feedback and control during robot-assisted needle insertion. The literature search was conducted during the middle months of 2017 using mainstream academic search engines with a combination of keywords relevant to the field. In total, 166 articles with valuable contents were analyzed and grouped into five related topics. This survey systemically summarizes the state-of-the-art force control technologies for robot-assisted needle insertion, such as force modeling, measurement, the factors that influence the interaction force, parameter identification, and force control algorithms. All studies show force control is still at its initial stage. The influence factors, needle deflection or planning remain open for investigation in future.

Advances in Robotic-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy over Time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emma F. P. Jacobs

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Since the introduction of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RALP, robotics has become increasingly more commonplace in the armamentarium of the urologic surgeon. Robotic utilization has exploded across surgical disciplines well beyond the fields of urology and prostate surgery. The literature detailing technical steps, comparison of large surgical series, and even robotically focused randomized control trials are available for review. RALP, the first robot-assisted surgical procedure to achieve widespread use, has recently become the primary approach for the surgical management of localized prostate cancer. As a result, surgeons are constantly trying to refine and improve upon current technical aspects of the operation. Recent areas of published modifications include bladder neck anastomosis and reconstruction, bladder drainage, nerve sparing approaches and techniques, and perioperative and postoperative management including penile rehabilitation. In this review, we summarize recent advances in perioperative management and surgical technique for RALP.

Transoral robotic assisted resection of the parapharyngeal space.

Science.gov (United States)

Mendelsohn, Abie H

2015-02-01

Preliminary case series have reported clinical feasibility and safety of a transoral minimally invasive technique to approach parapharyngeal space masses. With the assistance of the surgical robotic system, tumors within the parapharyngeal space can now be excised safely without neck incisions. A detailed technical description is included. After developing compressive symptoms from a parapharyngeal space lipomatous tumor, the patient was referred by his primary otolaryngologist because of poor open surgical access to the nasopharyngeal component of the tumor. Transoral robotic assisted resection of a 54- × 46-mm parapharyngeal space mass was performed, utilizing 97 minutes of robotic surgical time. Pictorial demonstration of the robotic resection is provided. Parapharyngeal space tumors have traditionally been approached via transcervical skin incisions, typically including blunt dissection from tactile feedback. The transoral robotic approach offers magnified 3D visualization of the parapharyngeal space that allows for complete and safe resection. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Singularity now: using the ventricular assist device as a model for future human-robotic physiology.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Archer K

2016-04-01

In our 21 st century world, human-robotic interactions are far more complicated than Asimov predicted in 1942. The future of human-robotic interactions includes human-robotic machine hybrids with an integrated physiology, working together to achieve an enhanced level of baseline human physiological performance. This achievement can be described as a biological Singularity. I argue that this time of Singularity cannot be met by current biological technologies, and that human-robotic physiology must be integrated for the Singularity to occur. In order to conquer the challenges we face regarding human-robotic physiology, we first need to identify a working model in today's world. Once identified, this model can form the basis for the study, creation, expansion, and optimization of human-robotic hybrid physiology. In this paper, I present and defend the line of argument that currently this kind of model (proposed to be named "IshBot") can best be studied in ventricular assist devices - VAD.

Instrumental tactile diagnostics in robot-assisted surgery

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Solodova RF

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Rozalia F Solodova,1,2 Vladimir V Galatenko,1,2 Eldar R Nakashidze,3 Igor L Andreytsev,3 Alexey V Galatenko,1 Dmitriy K Senchik,2 Vladimir M Staroverov,1 Vladimir E Podolskii,1,2 Mikhail E Sokolov,1,2 Victor A Sadovnichy1,2 1Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, 2Institute of Mathematical Studies of Complex Systems, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 31st Surgery Department, Clinical Hospital 31, Moscow, Russia Background: Robotic surgery has gained wide acceptance due to minimizing trauma in patients. However, the lack of tactile feedback is an essential limiting factor for the further expansion. In robotic surgery, feedback related to touch is currently kinesthetic, and it is mainly aimed at the minimization of force applied to tissues and organs. Design and implementation of diagnostic tactile feedback is still an open problem. We hypothesized that a sufficient tactile feedback in robot-assisted surgery can be provided by utilization of Medical Tactile Endosurgical Complex (MTEC, which is a novel specialized tool that is already commercially available in the Russian Federation. MTEC allows registration of tactile images by a mechanoreceptor, real-time visualization of these images, and reproduction of images via a tactile display. Materials and methods: Nine elective surgeries were performed with da Vinci™ robotic system. An assistant performed tactile examination through an additional port under the guidance of a surgeon during revision of tissues. The operating surgeon sensed registered tactile data using a tactile display, and the assistant inspected the visualization of tactile data. First, surgeries where lesion boundaries were visually detectable were performed. The goal was to promote cooperation between the surgeon and the assistant and to train them in perception of the tactile feedback. Then, instrumental tactile diagnostics was utilized in case of visually undetectable boundaries. Results: In robot-assisted surgeries where lesion

Human-robot cooperative movement training: Learning a novel sensory motor transformation during walking with robotic assistance-as-needed

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Benitez Raul

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A prevailing paradigm of physical rehabilitation following neurologic injury is to "assist-as-needed" in completing desired movements. Several research groups are attempting to automate this principle with robotic movement training devices and patient cooperative algorithms that encourage voluntary participation. These attempts are currently not based on computational models of motor learning. Methods Here we assume that motor recovery from a neurologic injury can be modelled as a process of learning a novel sensory motor transformation, which allows us to study a simplified experimental protocol amenable to mathematical description. Specifically, we use a robotic force field paradigm to impose a virtual impairment on the left leg of unimpaired subjects walking on a treadmill. We then derive an "assist-as-needed" robotic training algorithm to help subjects overcome the virtual impairment and walk normally. The problem is posed as an optimization of performance error and robotic assistance. The optimal robotic movement trainer becomes an error-based controller with a forgetting factor that bounds kinematic errors while systematically reducing its assistance when those errors are small. As humans have a natural range of movement variability, we introduce an error weighting function that causes the robotic trainer to disregard this variability. Results We experimentally validated the controller with ten unimpaired subjects by demonstrating how it helped the subjects learn the novel sensory motor transformation necessary to counteract the virtual impairment, while also preventing them from experiencing large kinematic errors. The addition of the error weighting function allowed the robot assistance to fade to zero even though the subjects' movements were variable. We also show that in order to assist-as-needed, the robot must relax its assistance at a rate faster than that of the learning human. Conclusion The assist

Human-robot cooperative movement training: learning a novel sensory motor transformation during walking with robotic assistance-as-needed.

Science.gov (United States)

Emken, Jeremy L; Benitez, Raul; Reinkensmeyer, David J

2007-03-28

A prevailing paradigm of physical rehabilitation following neurologic injury is to "assist-as-needed" in completing desired movements. Several research groups are attempting to automate this principle with robotic movement training devices and patient cooperative algorithms that encourage voluntary participation. These attempts are currently not based on computational models of motor learning. Here we assume that motor recovery from a neurologic injury can be modelled as a process of learning a novel sensory motor transformation, which allows us to study a simplified experimental protocol amenable to mathematical description. Specifically, we use a robotic force field paradigm to impose a virtual impairment on the left leg of unimpaired subjects walking on a treadmill. We then derive an "assist-as-needed" robotic training algorithm to help subjects overcome the virtual impairment and walk normally. The problem is posed as an optimization of performance error and robotic assistance. The optimal robotic movement trainer becomes an error-based controller with a forgetting factor that bounds kinematic errors while systematically reducing its assistance when those errors are small. As humans have a natural range of movement variability, we introduce an error weighting function that causes the robotic trainer to disregard this variability. We experimentally validated the controller with ten unimpaired subjects by demonstrating how it helped the subjects learn the novel sensory motor transformation necessary to counteract the virtual impairment, while also preventing them from experiencing large kinematic errors. The addition of the error weighting function allowed the robot assistance to fade to zero even though the subjects' movements were variable. We also show that in order to assist-as-needed, the robot must relax its assistance at a rate faster than that of the learning human. The assist-as-needed algorithm proposed here can limit error during the learning of a

Semiotics and Human-Robot Interaction

OpenAIRE

Sequeira, Joao; Ribeiro, M.Isabel

2007-01-01

The social barriers that still constrain the use of robots in modern societies will tend to vanish with the sophistication increase of interaction strategies. Communication and interaction between people and robots occurring in a friendly manner and being accessible to everyone, independent of their skills in robotics issues, will certainly foster the breaking of barriers. Socializing behaviors, such as following people, are relatively easy to obtain with current state of the art robotics. Ho...

Teleoperation and beyond for assistive humanoid robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goodrich, M.A.; Crandall, J.W.; Barakova, E.I.

2013-01-01

In this review, we explore how teleoperation could potentially be applied to the management of humanoid robots, with an emphasis on humanoid robots that are used in assistive roles, including clinical therapies. Since there are very few examples of the remote operation of a full humanoid, the review

[RESEARCH PROGRESS OF PERIPHERAL NERVE SURGERY ASSISTED BY Da Vinci ROBOTIC SYSTEM].

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Jie; Song, Diyu; Wang, Xiaoyu; Wang, Changjiang; Zhang, Shuming

2016-02-01

To summarize the research progress of peripheral nerve surgery assisted by Da Vinci robotic system. The recent domestic and international articles about peripheral nerve surgery assisted by Da Vinci robotic system were reviewed and summarized. Compared with conventional microsurgery, peripheral nerve surgery assisted by Da Vinci robotic system has distinctive advantages, such as elimination of physiological tremors and three-dimensional high-resolution vision. It is possible to perform robot assisted limb nerve surgery using either the traditional brachial plexus approach or the mini-invasive approach. The development of Da Vinci robotic system has revealed new perspectives in peripheral nerve surgery. But it has still been at the initial stage, more basic and clinical researches are still needed.

Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy in Brazil: preliminary results

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Jose Roberto Colombo Junior

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: To report the initial experience on robot-assisted radical prostatectomy in Brazil. Methods: From March 2008 to March 2009, a hundred patients were treated with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Patient’s demographic data, as well as perioperative results of the procedures, are described in this study. Rresults: Patients’ mean age and mean PSA were 58 years and 7.58 ng/ml, respectively. All procedures were performed through transperitoneal approach, with a mean bleeding of 480 mL and surgical time of 298 minutes. A surgical margin affected by cancer was present in 16% of the cases. There were four complications: bleeding requiring transfusion (two cases, rectal perforation corrected on the spot and inadequate functioning of the robot. There was no conversion to another access or obit occurrences in this caseload. Cconclusions: Robot-assisted prostatectomy is a reality in Brazil and the results herein presented demonstrate that this procedure can be safely performed. Long-term follow-up is still necessary to assess the oncological and functional outcomes.

A Perspective on Robotic Assistance for Knee Arthroplasty

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Nathan A. Netravali

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Knee arthroplasty is used to treat patients with degenerative joint disease of the knee to reduce pain and restore the function of the joint. Although patient outcomes are generally quite good, there are still a number of patients that are dissatisfied with their procedures. Aside from implant design which has largely become standard, surgical technique is one of the main factors that determine clinical results. Therefore, a lot of effort has gone into improving surgical technique including the use of computer-aided surgery. The latest generation of orthopedic surgical tools involves the use of robotics to enhance the surgeons’ abilities to install implants more precisely and consistently. This review presents an evolution of robot-assisted surgical systems for knee replacement with an emphasis on the clinical results available in the literature. Ever since various robotic-assistance systems were developed and used clinically worldwide, studies have demonstrated that these systems are as safe as and more accurate than conventional methods of manual implantation. Robotic surgical assistance will likely result in improved surgical technique and improved clinical results.

Interactive robots in experimental biology.

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Krause, Jens; Winfield, Alan F T; Deneubourg, Jean-Louis

2011-07-01

Interactive robots have the potential to revolutionise the study of social behaviour because they provide several methodological advances. In interactions with live animals, the behaviour of robots can be standardised, morphology and behaviour can be decoupled (so that different morphologies and behavioural strategies can be combined), behaviour can be manipulated in complex interaction sequences and models of behaviour can be embodied by the robot and thereby be tested. Furthermore, robots can be used as demonstrators in experiments on social learning. As we discuss here, the opportunities that robots create for new experimental approaches have far-reaching consequences for research in fields such as mate choice, cooperation, social learning, personality studies and collective behaviour. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Study on the Education Assistant System Using Smartphones and Service Robots for Children

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Gu-Min Jeong

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a new education assistant system model using both smartphones and service robots for children's learning. Through the interaction between a smartphone and a robot, various use cases can be derived. For example, we can control the movement of the robot remotely, watch the status of the children using real-time streaming, or read the answer on the smartphone while only the question is displayed on the robot. Considering these facts, we present three use cases, namely ‘remote control’, ‘streaming’ and ‘N-screen’ for robot-based learning with smartphones. The proposed learning model is implemented in Android-based smartphones and a service robot using the OPRoS platform, and we show that the proposed model works well.1

Robotic-assisted surgery in ophthalmology.

Science.gov (United States)

de Smet, Marc D; Naus, Gerrit J L; Faridpooya, Koorosh; Mura, Marco

2018-05-01

Provide an overview of the current landscape of robotics in ophthalmology, including the pros and cons of system designs, the clinical development path, and the likely future direction of the field. Robots designed for eye surgery should meet certain basic requirements. Three designs are currently being developed: smart surgical tools such as the steady hand, comanipulation devices and telemanipulators using either a fixed or virtual remote center of motion. Successful human intraocular surgery is being performed using the Preceyes surgical system. Another telemanipulation robot, the da Vinci Surgical System, has been used to perform a pterygium repair in humans and was successful in ex-vivo corneal surgery despite its nonophthalmic design. Apart from Preceyes' BV research platform, none of the currently eye-specific systems has reached a commercial stage. Systems are likely to evolve from robotic assistance during specific procedural steps to semiautonomous surgery, as smart sensors are introduced to enhance the basic functionalities of robotic systems. Robotics is still in its infancy in ophthalmology but is rapidly reaching a stage wherein it will be introduced into everyday ophthalmic practice. It will most likely be introduced first for demanding vitreo-retinal procedures, followed by anterior segment applications.

Robot-Assisted Antegrade In-Situ Fenestrated Stent Grafting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riga, Celia V.; Bicknell, Colin D.; Wallace, Daniel; Hamady, Mohamad; Cheshire, Nicholas

2009-01-01

To determine the technical feasibility of a novel approach of in-situ fenestration of aortic stent grafts by using a remotely controlled robotic steerable catheter system in the porcine model. A 65-kg pig underwent robot-assisted bilateral antegrade in-situ renal fenestration of an abdominal aortic stent graft with subsequent successful deployment of a bare metal stent into the right renal artery. A 16-mm iliac extension covered stent served as the porcine aortic endograft. Under fluoroscopic guidance, the graft was punctured with a 20-G customized diathermy needle that was introduced and kept in place by the robotic arm. The needle was exchanged for a 4 x 20 mm cutting balloon before successful deployment of the renal stent. Robot-assisted antegrade in-situ fenestration is technically feasible in a large mammalian model. The robotic system enables precise manipulation, stable positioning, and minimum instrumentation of the aorta and its branches while minimizing radiation exposure.

Analysis of reaching movements of upper arm in robot assisted exercises. Kinematic assessment of robot assisted upper arm reaching single-joint movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Iuppariello, Luigi; D'Addio, Giovanni; Romano, Maria; Bifulco, Paolo; Lanzillo, Bernardo; Pappone, Nicola; Cesarelli, Mario

2016-01-01

Robot-mediated therapy (RMT) has been a very dynamic area of research in recent years. Robotics devices are in fact capable to quantify the performances of a rehabilitation task in treatments of several disorders of the arm and the shoulder of various central and peripheral etiology. Different systems for robot-aided neuro-rehabilitation are available for upper limb rehabilitation but the biomechanical parameters proposed until today, to evaluate the quality of the movement, are related to the specific robot used and to the type of exercise performed. Besides, none study indicated a standardized quantitative evaluation of robot assisted upper arm reaching movements, so the RMT is still far to be considered a standardised tool. In this paper a quantitative kinematic assessment of robot assisted upper arm reaching movements, considering also the effect of gravity on the quality of the movements, is proposed. We studied a group of 10 healthy subjects and results indicate that our advised protocol can be useful for characterising normal pattern in reaching movements.

Human Robot Interaction for Hybrid Collision Avoidance System for Indoor Mobile Robots

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Mazen Ghandour

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a novel approach for collision avoidance for indoor mobile robots based on human-robot interaction is realized. The main contribution of this work is a new technique for collision avoidance by engaging the human and the robot in generating new collision-free paths. In mobile robotics, collision avoidance is critical for the success of the robots in implementing their tasks, especially when the robots navigate in crowded and dynamic environments, which include humans. Traditional collision avoidance methods deal with the human as a dynamic obstacle, without taking into consideration that the human will also try to avoid the robot, and this causes the people and the robot to get confused, especially in crowded social places such as restaurants, hospitals, and laboratories. To avoid such scenarios, a reactive-supervised collision avoidance system for mobile robots based on human-robot interaction is implemented. In this method, both the robot and the human will collaborate in generating the collision avoidance via interaction. The person will notify the robot about the avoidance direction via interaction, and the robot will search for the optimal collision-free path on the selected direction. In case that no people interacted with the robot, it will select the navigation path autonomously and select the path that is closest to the goal location. The humans will interact with the robot using gesture recognition and Kinect sensor. To build the gesture recognition system, two models were used to classify these gestures, the first model is Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN, and the second model is Support Vector Machine (SVM. Furthermore, a novel collision avoidance system for avoiding the obstacles is implemented and integrated with the HRI system. The system is tested on H20 robot from DrRobot Company (Canada and a set of experiments were implemented to report the performance of the system in interacting with the human and avoiding

Designing robot embodiments for social interaction: Affordances topple realism and aesthetics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Paauwe, R.A.; Hoorn, J.F.; Konijn, E.A.; Keyson, D.V.

2015-01-01

In the near future, human-like social robots will become indispensable for providing support in various social tasks, in particular for healthcare (e.g., assistance, coaching). The perception of realism, in particular human-like features, can help facilitate mediated social interaction. The current

Designing Robot Embodiments for Social Interaction : Affordances Topple Realism and Aesthetics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Paauwe, R.A.; Hoorn, J.F.; Konijn, E.A.; Keyson, D.V.

2015-01-01

In the near future, human-like social robots will become indispensable for providing support in various social tasks, in particular for healthcare (e.g., assistance, coaching). The perception of realism, in particular human-like features, can help facilitate mediated social interaction. The current

Assistance System for Disabled People: A Robot Controlled by Blinking and Wireless Link

Science.gov (United States)

Del Val, Lara; Jiménez, María I.; Alonso, Alonso; de La Rosa, Ramón; Izquierdo, Alberto; Carrera, Albano

Disabled people already profit from a lot of technical assistance that improves their quality of life. This article presents a system which will allow interaction between a physically disabled person and his environment. This system is controlled by voluntary muscular movements, particularly those of face muscles. These movements will be translated into machine-understandable instructions, and they will be sent by means of a wireless link to a mobile robot that will execute them. Robot includes a video camera, in order to show the user the environment of the route that the robot follows. This system gives a greater personal autonomy to people with reduced mobility.

Karolinska prostatectomy: a robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Nilsson, Andreas E; Carlsson, Stefan; Laven, Brett A; Wiklund, N Peter

2006-01-01

The last decade has witnessed an increasing trend towards minimally invasive management of prostate cancer, including laparoscopic and, more recently, robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy. Several different laparoscopic approaches have been continuously developed during the last 5 years and it is still unclear which technique yields the best outcome. We present our current technique of robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. The technique described has evolved during the course of >400 robotic prostatectomies performed by the robotic team since the robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy program was introduced at Karolinska University Hospital in January 2002. Our procedure comprises several modifications of previously reported ones, and we utilize fewer robotic instruments to reduce costs. An extended posterior dissection is performed to aid in the bladder neck-sparing dissection. In nerve-sparing procedures the vesicles are divided to avoid damage to the erectile nerves. In order to preserve the apical anatomy the dorsal venous complex is incised sharply and is first over-sewn after the apical dissection is completed. Our technique enables a more fluent dissection than previously described robotic techniques. Minimizing changes of instruments and the camera not only cuts costs but also reduces inefficient operating maneuvers, such as switching between 30 degrees and 0 degrees lenses during the procedure. We present a technique which in our hands has achieved excellent functional and oncological results.

Interaction debugging : an integral approach to analyze human-robot interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kooijmans, T.; Kanda, T.; Bartneck, C.; Ishiguro, H.; Hagita, N.

2006-01-01

Along with the development of interactive robots, controlled experiments and field trials are regularly conducted to stage human-robot interaction. Experience in this field has shown that analyzing human-robot interaction for evaluation purposes fosters the development of improved systems and the

A Quantitative Analysis of Dressing Dynamics for Robotic Dressing Assistance

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Greg Chance

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Assistive robots have a great potential to address issues related to an aging population and an increased demand for caregiving. Successful deployment of robots working in close proximity with people requires consideration of both safety and human–robot interaction (HRI. One of the established activities of daily living where robots could play an assistive role is dressing. Using the correct force profile for robot control will be essential in this application of HRI requiring careful exploration of factors related to the user’s pose and the type of garments involved. In this paper, a Baxter robot was used to dress a jacket onto a mannequin and human participants considering several combinations of user pose and clothing type (base layers, while recording dynamic data from the robot, a load cell, and an IMU. We also report on suitability of these sensors for identifying dressing errors, e.g., fabric snagging. Data were analyzed by comparing the overlap of confidence intervals to determine sensitivity to dressing. We expand the analysis to include classification techniques such as decision tree and support vector machines using k-fold cross-validation. The 6-axis load cell successfully discriminated between clothing types with predictive model accuracies between 72 and 97%. Used independently, the IMU and Baxter sensors were insufficient to discriminate garment types with the IMU showing 40–72% accuracy, but when used in combination this pair of sensors achieved an accuracy similar to the more expensive load cell (98%. When observing dressing errors (snagging, Baxter’s sensors and the IMU data demonstrated poor sensitivity but applying machine learning methods resulted in model with high predicative accuracy and low false negative rates (≤5%. The results show that the load cell could be used independently for this application with good accuracy but a combination of the lower cost sensors could also be used without a significant loss in

Robot-assisted laparoscopic myomectomy: current status

OpenAIRE

Arian,Sara; Munoz,Jessian; Kim,Suejin; Falcone,Tommaso

2017-01-01

Sara E Arian, Jessian L Munoz, Suejin Kim, Tommaso Falcone Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women’s Health Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA Abstract: Robotic-assisted surgery has seen a rapid development and integration in the field of gynecology. Since the approval of the use of robot for gynecological surgery and considering its several advantages over conventional laparoscopy, it has been widely incorporated especially in the field of reproductive surgery....

Rapid prototyping framework for robot-assisted training of autistic children

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kim, Mingyu; Barakova, E.I.; Lourens, T.

2014-01-01

Research in uptake and actual use of robots in socially assistive tasks is rapidly growing. However, practical applications lack behind due to the enormous effort to create meaningful behaviours. This paper describes a rapid prototyping framework for robot-assisted training of children with Autism

Pose Estimation and Adaptive Robot Behaviour for Human-Robot Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svenstrup, Mikael; Hansen, Søren Tranberg; Andersen, Hans Jørgen

2009-01-01

Abstract—This paper introduces a new method to determine a person’s pose based on laser range measurements. Such estimates are typically a prerequisite for any human-aware robot navigation, which is the basis for effective and timeextended interaction between a mobile robot and a human. The robot......’s pose. The resulting pose estimates are used to identify humans who wish to be approached and interacted with. The interaction motion of the robot is based on adaptive potential functions centered around the person that respect the persons social spaces. The method is tested in experiments...

Possible benefits of robot-assisted rectal cancer surgery regarding urological and sexual dysfunction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Broholm Andersen, Malene; Pommergaard, H-C; Gögenür, I

2015-01-01

AIM: Robot-assisted surgery for rectal cancer may result in lower rates of urogenital dysfunction compared with laparoscopic surgery. A systematic review was conducted of studies reporting urogenital dysfunction after robot-assisted rectal cancer surgery. METHOD: PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane...... Library were systematically searched in February 2014. All studies investigating urogenital function after robot-assisted rectal cancer surgery were identified. The inclusion criteria for meta-analysis studies required comparison of robot-assisted with laparoscopic surgery and the evaluation of urological...... to four including 152 patients in the robotic group and 161 in the laparoscopic group, without heterogeneity. The IPSS score at 3 and 12 months favoured robot-assisted surgery [mean difference (MD) -1.58; 95% CI (-3.1, -0.0), [P = 0.04; and MD -0.90 (-1.81, -0.02), P = 0.05]. IIEF scores at 3 months...

Evolution of Robot-assisted ultrasound-guided breast biopsy systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mustafa Z. Mahmoud

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Robot-assisted ultrasound-guided breast biopsy combines ultrasound (US imaging with a robotic system for medical interventions. This study was designed to provide a literature review of a robotic US-guided breast biopsy system to delineate its efficacious impact on current medical practice. In addition, the strengths and limitations of this approach were also addressed. Articles published in the English language between 2000 and 2016 were appraised in this review. A wide range of systems that bind robotics with US imaging and guided breast biopsy were examined in this article. The fundamental safety and real-time imaging capabilities of US, together with the accuracy and maneuverability of robotic devices, is clearly an effective association with unmatched capabilities. Numerous experimental systems have obvious benefits over old-fashioned techniques, and the future of robot-assisted US-guided breast biopsy will be characterized by increasing levels of automation, and they hold tremendous possibility to impact doctor achievement, patient recovery, and clinical management.

Transoral robotic-assisted laryngeal cleft repair in the pediatric patient.

Science.gov (United States)

Leonardis, Rachel L; Duvvuri, Umamaheswar; Mehta, Deepak

2014-09-01

To assess the feasibility of performing robotic-assisted laryngeal cleft repair in the pediatric population. Retrospective chart review at a tertiary academic children's hospital. All patients underwent transoral robotic-assisted laryngeal cleft repair from March 2011 to June 2013. Demographics, robotic docking time, operative time, and postoperative course and swallowing function were collected and analyzed. Five children, three male and two female, underwent successful transoral robotic-assisted laryngeal cleft repair for closure of a type I laryngeal cleft. Mean age at time of surgery was 21.6 months (standard deviation 6.1 months; range, 15-29 months). From case 1 to case 5, robotic docking time (18-10 minutes), robotic operative time (102-36 minutes), and total operating room time (173-105 minutes) decreased. There were no complications with time until extubation (range, 2-3 days), length of intensive care unit stay (range, 3-4 days), and total hospital stay (range, 3-5 days) within acceptable range following laryngeal cleft repair. Modified barium swallow (two patients) or fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (three patients) was performed postoperatively, with all patients showing complete resolution of penetration and aspiration. In addition, all patients experienced subjective resolution of dysphagia and/or choking with feeds postoperatively. Transoral robotic-assisted laryngeal cleft repair may offer specific advantages over a traditional endoscopic approach. In our experience, the procedure was well tolerated and associated with definitive surgical cure in all patients. The scope of robotic technology continually expands and should be considered a feasible tool at an institution-based level. © 2014 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

The Human-Robot Interaction Operating System

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Terrence; Kunz, Clayton; Hiatt, Laura M.; Bugajska, Magda

2006-01-01

In order for humans and robots to work effectively together, they need to be able to converse about abilities, goals and achievements. Thus, we are developing an interaction infrastructure called the "Human-Robot Interaction Operating System" (HRI/OS). The HRI/OS provides a structured software framework for building human-robot teams, supports a variety of user interfaces, enables humans and robots to engage in task-oriented dialogue, and facilitates integration of robots through an extensible API.

Exploring the ethical landscape of robot-assisted Search and Rescue

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Harbers, M.; Greeff, J. de; Kruijff-Korbayová, I.; Neerincx, M.A.; Hindriks, K.V.

2017-01-01

As robots are increasingly used in Search and Rescue (SAR) missions, it becomes highly relevant to study how SAR robots can be developed and deployed in a responsible way. In contrast to some other robot application domains, e.g. military and healthcare, the ethics of robot-assisted SAR are

Robotic-Assisted Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty: State-of-the Art and Review of the Literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Christ, Alexander B; Pearle, Andrew D; Mayman, David J; Haas, Steven B

2018-03-16

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty is a successful treatment for unicompartmental knee osteoarthritis that has lower complication rates, faster recovery, and a more natural feeling knee compared to total knee arthroplasty. However, long-term survival has been a persistent concern. As more surgeon-controlled variables have been linked to survival, interest in robotic-assisted surgery has continued to grow. A review and synthesis of the literature on the subject of robotic-assisted unicompartmental knee arthroplasty was performed. We present the driving factors behind the development of robotic-assisted techniques in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty and the current state-of-the art. The ability of surgeons to achieve intraoperative targets with robotic assistance and the outcomes of robotic-assisted surgery are also described. Robotic-assisted surgery has become increasingly popular in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty, as it allows surgeons to more accurately and reproducibly plan and achieve operative targets during surgery. Cost remains a concern, and it remains to be seen whether robotic-assisted surgery will improve long-term survivorship after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CLINICAL EFFICACY OF THE ROBOT-ASSISTED LAPAROSCOPIC MYOMECTOMY (A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. A. Gudebskaya

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Rationale: One of the most complicated and unresolved problems in clinical medicine is the choice of an optimal method for organ-preservation treatment of uterine fibroids in women of childbearing age. Aim: To assess clinical efficacy of robot-assisted laparoscopic myomectomy. Materials and methods: The search was performed in PubMed, Embase, Trip, Cochrane, DocMe databases by keywords: “fibroids”, “robot”, “da Vinci”, “robotic myomectomy”, “robot-assisted myomectomy”. Results: We found 25 publications on robot-assisted laparoscopic myomectomy, including 6  papers on its reproductive outcomes (levels of evidence II–IV. Duration of robot-assisted surgery ranged from 132 to 261 minutes, intraoperative blood loss was in the range from 50 to 387 mL, postoperative hospital stay ranged from 1 to  3.9  days. There was a  lower percentage of intra- and postoperative complications after the robot-assisted interventions, compared to abdominal or classic laparoscopic access, as well as a lower percentage of conversion laparotomies compared to laparoscopy. Pregnancy rates after robotic myomectomy ranged from 16.7 to 69%. Only one case of uterine rupture after robot-assisted laparoscopic myomectomy has been described in the literature. Conclusion: Due to high cost of the method, the number of conducted studies is insufficient to evaluate the role of robotic technologies in the organ-preservation approach to uterine fibroids. Nevertheless, they suggest that robot-assisted laparoscopic myomectomy is justified in women of childbearing age who are planning pregnancy, with big centripetally growing intramural nodes and deformation of the uterine cavity. This technique on its own is an independent method for fertility restoration and could be the first step before the use of assisted reproductive technology.

Progress in EEG-Based Brain Robot Interaction Systems

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Xiaoqian Mao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The most popular noninvasive Brain Robot Interaction (BRI technology uses the electroencephalogram- (EEG- based Brain Computer Interface (BCI, to serve as an additional communication channel, for robot control via brainwaves. This technology is promising for elderly or disabled patient assistance with daily life. The key issue of a BRI system is to identify human mental activities, by decoding brainwaves, acquired with an EEG device. Compared with other BCI applications, such as word speller, the development of these applications may be more challenging since control of robot systems via brainwaves must consider surrounding environment feedback in real-time, robot mechanical kinematics, and dynamics, as well as robot control architecture and behavior. This article reviews the major techniques needed for developing BRI systems. In this review article, we first briefly introduce the background and development of mind-controlled robot technologies. Second, we discuss the EEG-based brain signal models with respect to generating principles, evoking mechanisms, and experimental paradigms. Subsequently, we review in detail commonly used methods for decoding brain signals, namely, preprocessing, feature extraction, and feature classification, and summarize several typical application examples. Next, we describe a few BRI applications, including wheelchairs, manipulators, drones, and humanoid robots with respect to synchronous and asynchronous BCI-based techniques. Finally, we address some existing problems and challenges with future BRI techniques.

Narratives with Robots: The Impact of Interaction Context and Individual Differences on Story Recall and Emotional Understanding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iolanda Leite

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Role-play scenarios have been considered a successful learning space for children to develop their social and emotional abilities. In this paper, we investigate whether socially assistive robots in role-playing settings are as effective with small groups of children as they are with a single child and whether individual factors such as gender, grade level (first vs. second, perception of the robots (peer vs. adult, and empathy level (low vs. high play a role in these two interaction contexts. We conducted a three-week repeated exposure experiment where 40 children interacted with socially assistive robotic characters that acted out interactive stories around words that contribute to expanding children’s emotional vocabulary. Our results showed that although participants who interacted alone with the robots recalled the stories better than participants in the group condition, no significant differences were found in children’s emotional interpretation of the narratives. With regard to individual differences, we found that a single child setting appeared more appropriate to first graders than a group setting, empathy level is an important predictor for emotional understanding of the narratives, and children’s performance varies depending on their perception of the robots (peer vs. adult in the two conditions.

Robot-assisted pyeloplasty: review of the current literature, technique and outcome.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Iqbal; Hemal, Ashok K

2010-04-01

To review the global select data on the current technique, perioperative outcome and literature on the robot-assisted pyeloplasty (RAP). The published English literature (PubMed) was extensively searched using the key words; robot, robot-assisted pyeloplasty, laparoscopy, laparoscopic pyeloplasty and ureteropelvic junction obstruction. The selected studies were then reviewed, tracked and analyzed in order to determine the current role, outcome and status of robot-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty. The search yielded about 25 published series on RAP comprising about 740 cases with a mean operative time, estimated blood loss, crossing vessel prevalence, hospital stay,perioperative complication rate and follow up duration of 194 min, 50 mL, 47%, 2.3 days, 6% and 14.9 months respectively. The initial peri-operative results and intermediate follow up of cases of repair of the ureteropelvic junction obstruction with robot-assisted pyeloplasty appear to be favorable and comparable to that of open pyeloplasty, while long term outcome data is still awaited. The da Vinci surgical robotic system is a promising surgical armamentarium in the hands of the modern day urologist for the minimally invasive definitive surgical management of both primary and secondary ureteropelvic junction obstruction.

Robot-assisted radiofrequency ablation of primary and secondary liver tumours: early experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdullah, Basri Johan Jeet; Yeong, Chai Hong; Goh, Khean Lee; Yoong, Boon Koon; Ho, Gwo Fuang; Yim, Carolyn Chue Wai; Kulkarni, Anjali

2014-01-01

Computed tomography (CT)-compatible robots, both commercial and research-based, have been developed with the intention of increasing the accuracy of needle placement and potentially improving the outcomes of therapies in addition to reducing clinical staff and patient exposure to radiation during CT fluoroscopy. In the case of highly inaccessible lesions that require multiple plane angulations, robotically assisted needles may improve biopsy access and targeted drug delivery therapy by avoidance of the straight line path of normal linear needles. We report our preliminary experience of performing radiofrequency ablation of the liver using a robotic-assisted CT guidance system on 11 patients (17 lesions). Robotic-assisted planning and needle placement appears to have high accuracy, is technically easier than the non-robotic-assisted procedure, and involves a significantly lower radiation dose to both patient and support staff. (orig.)

Robot-assisted radiofrequency ablation of primary and secondary liver tumours: early experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abdullah, Basri Johan Jeet [University of Malaya, Department of Biomedical Imaging, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Yeong, Chai Hong [University of Malaya, University of Malaya Research Imaging Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Goh, Khean Lee [University of Malaya, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Yoong, Boon Koon [University of Malaya, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Ho, Gwo Fuang [University of Malaya, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Yim, Carolyn Chue Wai [University of Malaya, Department of Anesthesia, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Kulkarni, Anjali [Perfint Healthcare Corporation, Florence, OR (United States)

2014-01-15

Computed tomography (CT)-compatible robots, both commercial and research-based, have been developed with the intention of increasing the accuracy of needle placement and potentially improving the outcomes of therapies in addition to reducing clinical staff and patient exposure to radiation during CT fluoroscopy. In the case of highly inaccessible lesions that require multiple plane angulations, robotically assisted needles may improve biopsy access and targeted drug delivery therapy by avoidance of the straight line path of normal linear needles. We report our preliminary experience of performing radiofrequency ablation of the liver using a robotic-assisted CT guidance system on 11 patients (17 lesions). Robotic-assisted planning and needle placement appears to have high accuracy, is technically easier than the non-robotic-assisted procedure, and involves a significantly lower radiation dose to both patient and support staff. (orig.)

Current perspectives in robotic assisted surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Binet, Aurélien; Ballouhey, Quentin; Chaussy, Yann; de Lambert, Guénolée; Braïk, Karim; Villemagne, Thierry; Becmeur, François; Fourcade, Laurent; Lardy, Hubert

2018-02-23

From classical surgery to Robotic Assisted Surgery, there is a long way allowed by Minimal Invasive Surgery' improvements. The last three decades have witnessed a prodigious development of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and especially in the field of laparoscopic pediatric surgery but there are several limitations in the use of conventional laparoscopic surgery and Robotic Assisted Surgery was developed to relieve these drawbacks. This new technology enables today the performance of a wide variety of procedures in children with a minimally invasive approach. As for all new technologies, an objective evaluation is essential with the need to respond to several questions: Is the technology feasible? Is the technology safe? Is the technology efficient? Does it bring about benefits compared with current technology? What are the procedures derived from most benefits of robotic assistance? How to assume the transition from open surgery to Minimal Invasive access for RAS? In the first part of this article, the authors give details about technical concerns and then describe the implementation process with its organization, pitfalls, successes, and issues from human resources and financial standpoints. The learning curve is then described and a special focus on small children weighing less than 15 Kg is developed. Finally, the concept of evaluation of this emerging technology is evocated and financial concerns are developed.

Robotic Teaching Assistance for the "Tower of Hanoi" Problem

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Thien, Nguyen Duc; Terracina, Annalisa; Iocchi, Luca; Mecella, Massimo

2016-01-01

In this work the authors investigate the effectiveness of robotics in education. Rather than creating excitement for children when playing with robots in games, they are examining the overall learning environment where a robot acts as a teaching assistant. They designed a suitable lesson plan when groups of teenagers participate in activities…

Initial Clinical Experience With Surgical Technique of Robot-assisted Transperitoneal Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy

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Cheng-Kuang Yang

2009-12-01

Conclusion: Robot-assisted LPN is feasible and may be a viable alternative to open or LPN in selected patients with small exophytic renal tumors. Compared with standard LPN, the robotic assisted LPN approach with precise renal reconstruction under a safe warm ischemia time is feasible and can be easily adopted by those with experience in robot-assisted surgery.

Robot-assisted bronchoplasty using continuous barbed sutures.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarsam, Omar Matthieu; Dunning, Joel; Pochulu, Bruno; Baste, Jean-Marc

2018-01-01

We describe in this article our bronchoplastic robot-assisted techniques. This consists of using continuous barbed sutures. Our aim is to show the feasibility and the interest of using robotics and this kind of suture material for complex bronchial procedures. We report four cases in France and the UK, two wedge bronchoplasties and two sleeve bronchoplasties for central pulmonary tumors.

[Robotic assistance in gynaecological surgery: State-of-the-art].

Science.gov (United States)

Monsarrat, N; Collinet, P; Narducci, F; Leblanc, E; Vinatier, D

2009-05-01

From the Automated Endoscopic System for Optimal Positioning (AESOP), a robotic arm which operates the laparoscope, to the robots Zeus and da Vinci, robotic assistance in gynaecological endoscopic surgery has continuously evolved for the last fifteen years or so. It has brought about new technical advancements: the last generation robots offer a steady three-dimensional image, improved instrument dexterity and precision, higher ergonomics and comfort for the surgeon. The da Vinci robotic system has been used without evincing any specific morbidity in various cases, notably for tubal reanastomosis, myomectomy, hysterectomy, pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy or sacrocolpopexy amongst others. Robotic assistance in gynaecology is thus feasible. Like conventional laparoscopic surgery, it allows decreased blood loss and morbidity as well as shorter hospital stay, as compared to laparotomy. It might indeed allow many surgical teams to perform minimally invasive surgical procedures which they were not used to performing by laparoscopy. Randomized prospective studies are needed to define its indications more precisely. Besides, its medico-financial impact should be evaluated too.

Movement Performance of Human-Robot Cooperation Control Based on EMG-Driven Hill-Type and Proportional Models for an Ankle Power-Assist Exoskeleton Robot.

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Ao, Di; Song, Rong; Gao, JinWu

2017-08-01

Although the merits of electromyography (EMG)-based control of powered assistive systems have been certified, the factors that affect the performance of EMG-based human-robot cooperation, which are very important, have received little attention. This study investigates whether a more physiologically appropriate model could improve the performance of human-robot cooperation control for an ankle power-assist exoskeleton robot. To achieve the goal, an EMG-driven Hill-type neuromusculoskeletal model (HNM) and a linear proportional model (LPM) were developed and calibrated through maximum isometric voluntary dorsiflexion (MIVD). The two control models could estimate the real-time ankle joint torque, and HNM is more accurate and can account for the change of the joint angle and muscle dynamics. Then, eight healthy volunteers were recruited to wear the ankle exoskeleton robot and complete a series of sinusoidal tracking tasks in the vertical plane. With the various levels of assist based on the two calibrated models, the subjects were instructed to track the target displayed on the screen as accurately as possible by performing ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion. Two measurements, the root mean square error (RMSE) and root mean square jerk (RMSJ), were derived from the assistant torque and kinematic signals to characterize the movement performances, whereas the amplitudes of the recorded EMG signals from the tibialis anterior (TA) and the gastrocnemius (GAS) were obtained to reflect the muscular efforts. The results demonstrated that the muscular effort and smoothness of tracking movements decreased with an increase in the assistant ratio. Compared with LPM, subjects made lower physical efforts and generated smoother movements when using HNM, which implied that a more physiologically appropriate model could enable more natural and human-like human-robot cooperation and has potential value for improvement of human-exoskeleton interaction in future applications.

Robot Futures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christoffersen, Anja; Grindsted Nielsen, Sally; Jochum, Elizabeth Ann

Robots are increasingly used in health care settings, e.g., as homecare assistants and personal companions. One challenge for personal robots in the home is acceptance. We describe an innovative approach to influencing the acceptance of care robots using theatrical performance. Live performance...... is a useful testbed for developing and evaluating what makes robots expressive; it is also a useful platform for designing robot behaviors and dialogue that result in believable characters. Therefore theatre is a valuable testbed for studying human-robot interaction (HRI). We investigate how audiences...... perceive social robots interacting with humans in a future care scenario through a scripted performance. We discuss our methods and initial findings, and outline future work....

Hybrid procedure for total laryngectomy with a flexible robot-assisted surgical system.

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Schuler, Patrick J; Hoffmann, Thomas K; Veit, Johannes A; Rotter, Nicole; Friedrich, Daniel T; Greve, Jens; Scheithauer, Marc O

2017-06-01

Total laryngectomy is a standard procedure in head-and-neck surgery for the treatment of cancer patients. Recent clinical experiences have indicated a clinical benefit for patients undergoing transoral robot-assisted total laryngectomy (TORS-TL) with commercially available systems. Here, a new hybrid procedure for total laryngectomy is presented. TORS-TL was performed in human cadavers (n = 3) using a transoral-transcervical hybrid procedure. The transoral approach was performed with a robotic flexible robot-assisted surgical system (Flex®) and compatible flexible instruments. Transoral access and visualization of anatomical landmarks were studied in detail. Total laryngectomy is feasible with a combined transoral-transcervical approach using the flexible robot-assisted surgical system. Transoral visualization of all anatomical structures is sufficient. The flexible design of the robot is advantageous for transoral surgery of the laryngeal structures. Transoral robot assisted surgery has the potential to reduce morbidity, hospital time and fistula rates in a selected group of patients. Initial clinical studies and further development of supplemental tools are in progress. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Robot-assisted pancreatic surgery: a systematic review of the literature

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Strijker, Marin; van Santvoort, Hjalmar C; Besselink, Marc G; van Hillegersberg, Richard; Borel Rinkes, Inne HM; Vriens, Menno R; Molenaar, I Quintus

2013-01-01

Background To potentially improve outcomes in pancreatic resection, robot-assisted pancreatic surgery has been introduced. This technique has possible advantages over laparoscopic surgery, such as its affordance of three-dimensional vision and increased freedom of movement of instruments. A systematic review was performed to assess the safety and feasibility of robot-assisted pancreatic surgery. Methods The literature published up to 30 September 2011 was systematically reviewed, with no restrictions on publication date. Studies reporting on over five patients were included. Animal studies, studies not reporting morbidity and mortality, review articles and conference abstracts were excluded. Data were extracted and weighted means were calculated. Results A total of 499 studies were screened, after which eight cohort studies reporting on a total of 251 patients undergoing robot-assisted pancreatic surgery were retained for analysis. Weighted mean operation time was 404 ± 102 min (510 ± 107 min for pancreatoduodenectomy only). The rate of conversion was 11.0% (16.4% for pancreatoduodenectomy only). Overall morbidity was 30.7% (n = 77), most frequently involving pancreatic fistulae (n = 46). Mortality was 1.6%. Negative surgical margins were obtained in 92.9% of patients. The rate of spleen preservation in distal pancreatectomy was 87.1%. Conclusions Robot-assisted pancreatic surgery seems to be safe and feasible in selected patients and, in left-sided resections, may increase the rate of spleen preservation. Randomized studies should compare the respective outcomes of robot-assisted, laparoscopic and open pancreatic surgery. PMID:23216773

Toward the art of robotic-assisted vitreoretinal surgery

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Amir Molaei

2017-01-01

Full Text Available New technological progress in robotics has brought many beneficial clinical applications. Currently, computer integrated robotic surgery has gained clinical acceptance for several surgical procedures. Robotically assisted eye surgery is envisaged as a promising solution to overcome the shortcomings inherent to conventional surgical procedures as in vitreoretinal surgeries. Robotics by its high precision and fine mechanical control can improve dexterity, cancel tremor, and allow highly precise remote surgical capability, delicate vitreoretinal manipulation capabilities. Combined with magnified three-dimensional imaging of the surgical site, it can enhance surgical precision. Tele-manipulation can provide the ability for tele-surgery or haptic feedback of forces generated by the manipulation of intraocular tissues. It presents new solutions for some sight-threatening conditions such as retinal vein cannulation where, due to physiological limitations of the surgeon's hand, the procedure cannot be adequately performed. In this paper, we provide an overview of the research and advances in robotically assisted vitreoretinal eye surgery. Additionally the barriers to the integration of this method in the field of ocular surgery are summarized. Finally, we discuss the possible applications of the method in the area of vitreoretinal surgery.

The impact of marketing language on patient preference for robot-assisted surgery.

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Dixon, Peter R; Grant, Robert C; Urbach, David R

2015-02-01

Robot-assisted surgery is gaining momentum as a new trend in minimally invasive surgery. With limited evidence supporting its use in place of the far less expensive conventional laparoscopic surgery, it has been suggested that marketing pressure is partly responsible for its widespread adoption. The impact of phrases that promote the novelty of robot-assisted surgery on patient decision making has not been investigated. We conducted a discrete choice experiment to elicit preference of partial colectomy technique for a hypothetical diagnosis of colon cancer. A convenience sample of 38 participants in an ambulatory general surgery clinic consented to participate. Each participant made 2 treatment decisions between robot-assisted surgery and conventional laparoscopic surgery, with robot-assisted surgery described as "innovative" and "state-of-the-art" in one of the decisions (marketing frame), and by a disclosure of the uncertainty of available evidence in the other (evidence-based frame). The magnitude of the framing effect was large with 12 of 38 subjects (31.6%, P = .005) selecting robot-assisted surgery in the marketing frame and not the evidence-based frame. This is the first study to our knowledge to demonstrate that words that highlight novelty have an important influence on patient preference for robot-assisted surgery and that use of more neutral language can mitigate this effect. © The Author(s) 2014.

An Exoskeleton Robot for Human Forearm and Wrist Motion Assist

Science.gov (United States)

Ranathunga Arachchilage Ruwan Chandra Gopura; Kiguchi, Kazuo

The exoskeleton robot is worn by the human operator as an orthotic device. Its joints and links correspond to those of the human body. The same system operated in different modes can be used for different fundamental applications; a human-amplifier, haptic interface, rehabilitation device and assistive device sharing a portion of the external load with the operator. We have been developing exoskeleton robots for assisting the motion of physically weak individuals such as elderly or slightly disabled in daily life. In this paper, we propose a three degree of freedom (3DOF) exoskeleton robot (W-EXOS) for the forearm pronation/ supination motion, wrist flexion/extension motion and ulnar/radial deviation. The paper describes the wrist anatomy toward the development of the exoskeleton robot, the hardware design of the exoskeleton robot and EMG-based control method. The skin surface electromyographic (EMG) signals of muscles in forearm of the exoskeletons' user and the hand force/forearm torque are used as input information for the controller. By applying the skin surface EMG signals as main input signals to the controller, automatic control of the robot can be realized without manipulating any other equipment. Fuzzy control method has been applied to realize the natural and flexible motion assist. Experiments have been performed to evaluate the proposed exoskeleton robot and its control method.

Robot-Assisted Training Early After Cardiac Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoenrath, Felix; Markendorf, Susanne; Brauchlin, Andreas E; Seifert, Burkhardt; Wilhelm, Markus J; Czerny, Martin; Riener, Robert; Falk, Volkmar; Schmied, Christian M

2015-07-01

To assess feasibility and safety of a robot-assisted gait therapy with the Lokomat® system in patients early after open heart surgery. Within days after open heart surgery 10 patients were subjected to postoperative Lokomat® training (Intervention group, IG) whereas 20 patients served as controls undergoing standard postoperative physiotherapy (Control group, CG). All patients underwent six-minute walk test and evaluation of the muscular strength of the lower limbs by measuring quadriceps peak force. The primary safety end-point was freedom from any device-related wound healing disturbance. Patients underwent clinical follow-up after one month. Both training methods resulted in an improvement of walking distance (IG [median, interquartile range, p-value]: +119 m, 70-201 m, p = 0.005; CG: 105 m, 57-152.5m, p force (IG left: +5 N, 3.8 7 N, p = 0.005; IG right: +3.5 N, 1.5-8.8 N, p = 0.011; CG left: +5.5 N, 4-9 N, p training were comparable to early postoperative standard in hospital training (median changes in walking distance in percent, p = 0.81; median changes in quadriceps peak force in percent, left: p = 0.97, right p = 0.61). No deep sternal wound infection or any adverse event occurred in the robot-assisted training group. Robot-assisted gait therapy with the Lokomat® system is feasible and safe in patients early after median sternotomy. Results with robot-assisted training were comparable to standard in hospital training. An adapted and combined aerobic and resistance training intervention with augmented feedback may result in benefits in walking distance and lower limb muscle strength (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT 02146196). © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effect of human-robot interaction on muscular synergies on healthy people and post-stroke chronic patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Scano, A; Chiavenna, A; Caimmi, M; Malosio, M; Tosatti, L M; Molteni, F

2017-07-01

Robot-assisted training is a widely used technique to promote motor re-learning on post-stroke patients that suffer from motor impairment. While it is commonly accepted that robot-based therapies are potentially helpful, strong insights about their efficacy are still lacking. The motor re-learning process may act on muscular synergies, which are groups of co-activating muscles that, being controlled as a synergic group, allow simplifying the problem of motor control. In fact, by coordinating a reduced amount of neural signals, complex motor patterns can be elicited. This paper aims at analyzing the effects of robot assistance during 3D-reaching movements in the framework of muscular synergies. 5 healthy people and 3 neurological patients performed free and robot-assisted reaching movements at 2 different speeds (slow and quasi-physiological). EMG recordings were used to extract muscular synergies. Results indicate that the interaction with the robot very slightly alters healthy people patterns but, on the contrary, it may promote the emergency of physiological-like synergies on neurological patients.

Robotically assisted MRgFUS system

Science.gov (United States)

Jenne, Jürgen W.; Krafft, Axel J.; Maier, Florian; Rauschenberg, Jaane; Semmler, Wolfhard; Huber, Peter E.; Bock, Michael

2010-03-01

Magnetic resonance imaging guided focus ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) is a highly precise method to ablate tissue non-invasively. The objective of this ongoing work is to establish an MRgFUS therapy unit consisting of a specially designed FUS applicator as an add-on to a commercial robotic assistance system originally designed for percutaneous needle interventions in whole-body MRI systems. The fully MR compatible robotic assistance system InnoMotion™ (Synthes Inc., West Chester, USA; formerly InnoMedic GmbH, Herxheim, Germany) offers six degrees of freedom. The developed add-on FUS treatment applicator features a fixed focus ultrasound transducer (f = 1.7 MHz; f' = 68 mm, NA = 0.44, elliptical shaped -6-dB-focus: 8.1 mm length; O/ = 1.1 mm) embedded in a water-filled flexible bellow. A Mylar® foil is used as acoustic window encompassed by a dedicated MRI loop coil. For FUS application, the therapy unit is directly connected to the head of the robotic system, and the treatment region is targeted from above. A newly in-house developed software tool allowed for complete remote control of the MRgFUS-robot system and online analysis of MRI thermometry data. The system's ability for therapeutic relevant focal spot scanning was tested in a closed-bore clinical 1.5 T MR scanner (Magnetom Symphony, Siemens AG, Erlangen, Germany) in animal experiments with pigs. The FUS therapy procedure was performed entirely under MRI guidance including initial therapy planning, online MR-thermometry, and final contrast enhanced imaging for lesion detection. In vivo trials proved the MRgFUS-robot system as highly MR compatible. MR-guided focal spot scanning experiments were performed and a well-defined pattern of thermal tissue lesions was created. A total in vivo positioning accuracy of the US focus better than 2 mm was estimated which is comparable to existing MRgFUS systems. The newly developed FUS-robotic system offers an accurate, highly flexible focus positioning. With its access

Comparison of Perioperative Outcomes of Total Laparoscopic and Robotically Assisted Hysterectomy for Benign Pathology during Introduction of a Robotic Program

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gokhan Sami Kilic

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Study Objective. Prospectively compare outcomes of robotically assisted and laparoscopic hysterectomy in the process of implementing a new robotic program. Design. Prospectively comparative observational nonrandomized study. Design Classification. II-1. Setting. Tertiary caregiver university hospital. Patients. Data collected consecutively 24 months, 34 patients underwent laparoscopic hysterectomy, 25 patients underwent robotic hysterectomy, and 11 patients underwent vaginal hysterectomy at our institution. Interventions. Outcomes of robotically assisted, laparoscopic, and vaginal complex hysterectomies performed by a single surgeon for noncancerous indications. Measurements and Main Results. Operative times were 208.3±59.01 minutes for laparoscopic, 286.2±82.87 minutes for robotic, and 163.5±61.89 minutes for vaginal (<.0001. Estimated blood loss for patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery was 242.7±211.37 cc, 137.4±107.50 cc for robotic surgery, and 243.2±127.52 cc for vaginal surgery (=0.05. The mean length of stay ranged from 1.8 to 2.3 days for the 3 methods. Association was significant for uterine weight (=0.0043 among surgery methods. Conclusion. Robotically assisted hysterectomy is feasible with low morbidity, a shorter hospital stay, and less blood loss. This suggests that robotic assistance facilitates a minimally invasive approach for patients with larger uterine size even during implementing a new robotic program.

Development of an Upper Limb Motorized Assistive-Rehabilitative Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Amiri, Masoud; Casolo, Federico

While the number of people requiring help for the activities of daily living are increasing, several studies have been shown the effectiveness of robot training for upper limb functionality recovery. The robotic system described in this paper is an active end-effector based robot which can be used for assisting and rehabilitating of human upper limb. The robot is able to take into account desire of the patient for the support that patient needs to complete the task.

Transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block after robot-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Torup, H; Bøgeskov, M; Hansen, E G

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block is widely used as a part of pain management after various abdominal surgeries. We evaluated the effect of TAP block as an add-on to the routine analgesic regimen in patients undergoing robot-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy. METHODS......: In a prospective blinded study, 70 patients scheduled for elective robot-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy were randomised to receive either TAP block (ropivacaine 0.5%, 20 ml on each side) or sham block (isotonic saline 0.9%, 20 ml on each side). All patients had patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with morphine...... and Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) treatment, had no effect on morphine consumption, VAS pain scores, or frequency of nausea and vomiting after robot-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy compared with paracetamol and NSAID alone....

Robust Control Design of Wheeled Inverted Pendulum Assistant Robot

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Magdi S.Mahmoud; Mohammad T.Nasir

2017-01-01

This paper examines the design concept and mobile control strategy of the human assistant robot I-PENTAR（inverted pendulum type assistant robot）. The motion equation is derived considering the non-holonomic constraint of the twowheeled mobile robot. Different optimal control approaches are applied to a linearized model of I-PENTAR. These include linear quadratic regulator（LQR）, linear quadratic Gaussian control（LQG）, H2 control and H∞ control. Simulation is performed for all the approaches yielding good performance results.

Fable: Socially Interactive Modular Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Magnússon, Arnþór; Pacheco, Moises; Moghadam, Mikael

2013-01-01

Modular robots have a significant potential as user-reconfigurable robotic playware, but often lack sufficient sensing for social interaction. We address this issue with the Fable modular robotic system by exploring the use of smart sensor modules that has a better ability to sense the behavior...

User localization during human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Martín, F; Gorostiza, Javi F; Malfaz, María; Salichs, Miguel A

2012-01-01

This paper presents a user localization system based on the fusion of visual information and sound source localization, implemented on a social robot called Maggie. One of the main requisites to obtain a natural interaction between human-human and human-robot is an adequate spatial situation between the interlocutors, that is, to be orientated and situated at the right distance during the conversation in order to have a satisfactory communicative process. Our social robot uses a complete multimodal dialog system which manages the user-robot interaction during the communicative process. One of its main components is the presented user localization system. To determine the most suitable allocation of the robot in relation to the user, a proxemic study of the human-robot interaction is required, which is described in this paper. The study has been made with two groups of users: children, aged between 8 and 17, and adults. Finally, at the end of the paper, experimental results with the proposed multimodal dialog system are presented.

From Leonardo to da Vinci: the history of robot-assisted surgery in urology.

Science.gov (United States)

Yates, David R; Vaessen, Christophe; Roupret, Morgan

2011-12-01

What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? Numerous urological procedures can now be performed with robotic assistance. Though not definitely proven to be superior to conventional laparoscopy or traditional open surgery in the setting of a randomised trial, in experienced centres robot-assisted surgery allows for excellent surgical outcomes and is a valuable tool to augment modern surgical practice. Our review highlights the depth of history that underpins the robotic surgical platform we utilise today, whilst also detailing the current place of robot-assisted surgery in urology in 2011. The evolution of robots in general and as platforms to augment surgical practice is an intriguing story that spans cultures, continents and centuries. A timeline from Yan Shi (1023-957 bc), Archytas of Tarentum (400 bc), Aristotle (322 bc), Heron of Alexandria (10-70 ad), Leonardo da Vinci (1495), the Industrial Revolution (1790), 'telepresence' (1950) and to the da Vinci(®) Surgical System (1999), shows the incredible depth of history and development that underpins the modern surgical robot we use to treat our patients. Robot-assisted surgery is now well-established in Urology and although not currently regarded as a 'gold standard' approach for any urological procedure, it is being increasingly used for index operations of the prostate, kidney and bladder. We perceive that robotic evolution will continue infinitely, securing the place of robots in the history of Urological surgery. Herein, we detail the history of robots in general, in surgery and in Urology, highlighting the current place of robot-assisted surgery in radical prostatectomy, partial nephrectomy, pyeloplasty and radical cystectomy. © 2011 THE AUTHORS. BJU INTERNATIONAL © 2011 BJU INTERNATIONAL.

Robot-Assisted Training for People With Spinal Cord Injury: A Meta-Analysis.

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Cheung, Eddy Y Y; Ng, Thomas K W; Yu, Kevin K K; Kwan, Rachel L C; Cheing, Gladys L Y

2017-11-01

To investigate the effects of robot-assisted training on the recovery of people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs involving people with SCI that compared robot-assisted upper limbs or lower limbs training with a control of other treatment approach or no treatment. We included studies involving people with complete or incomplete SCIs. We searched MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Cochrane Library), and Embase to August 2016. Bibliographies of relevant articles on the effect of body-weight-supported treadmill training on subjects with SCI were screened to avoid missing relevant articles from the search of databases. All kinds of objective assessments concerning physical ability, mobility, and/or functional ability were included. Assessments could be clinical tests (ie, 6-minute walk test, FIM) or laboratory tests (ie, gait analysis). Subjective outcome measures were excluded from this review. Eleven RCT studies involving 443 subjects were included in the study. Meta-analysis was performed on the included studies. Walking independence (3.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], -4.92 to -2.53; P<.00001; I 2 =38%) and endurance (53.32m; 95% CI, -73.15 to -33.48; P<.00001; I 2 =0%) were found to have better improvement in robot-assisted training groups. Lower limb robot-assisted training was also found to be as effective as other types of body-weight-supported training. There is a lack of upper limb robot-assisted training studies; therefore, performing a meta-analysis was not possible. Robot-assisted training is an adjunct therapy for physical and functional recovery for patients with SCI. Future high-quality studies are warranted to investigate the effects of robot-assisted training on functional and cardiopulmonary recovery of patients with SCI. Copyright © 2017 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Feasibility Study of a Socially Assistive Humanoid Robot for Guiding Elderly Individuals during Walking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiara Piezzo

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The impact of the world-wide ageing population has commenced with respect to society in developed countries. Several researchers focused on exploring new methods to improve the quality of life of elderly individuals by allowing them to remain independent and healthy to the maximum possible extent. For example, new walking aids are designed to allow elderly individuals to remain mobile in a safe manner because the importance of walking is well-known. The aim of the present study involves designing a humanoid robot guide as a walking trainer for elderly individuals. It is hypothesized that the same service robot provides an assistive and social contribution with respect to interaction between elderly users by motivating them to walk more and simultaneously provides assistance, such as physical assistance and gait monitoring, while walking. This study includes a detailed statement of the research problem as well as a literature review of existing studies related to walking companion robots. A user-centred design approach is adopted to report the results of the current first feasibility study by using a commercially available humanoid robot known as Pepper developed by Softbank-Aldebaran. A quantitative questionnaire was used to investigate all elements that assess intrinsic motivation in users while performing a given activity. Conversely, basic gait data were acquired through a video analysis to test the capability of the robot to modify the gait of human users. The results in terms of the feedback received from elderly subjects and the literature review improve the design of the walking trainer for elderly individuals.

HiMoP: A three-component architecture to create more human-acceptable social-assistive robots : Motivational architecture for assistive robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez-Lera, Francisco J; Matellán-Olivera, Vicente; Conde-González, Miguel Á; Martín-Rico, Francisco

2018-05-01

Generation of autonomous behavior for robots is a general unsolved problem. Users perceive robots as repetitive tools that do not respond to dynamic situations. This research deals with the generation of natural behaviors in assistive service robots for dynamic domestic environments, particularly, a motivational-oriented cognitive architecture to generate more natural behaviors in autonomous robots. The proposed architecture, called HiMoP, is based on three elements: a Hierarchy of needs to define robot drives; a set of Motivational variables connected to robot needs; and a Pool of finite-state machines to run robot behaviors. The first element is inspired in Alderfer's hierarchy of needs, which specifies the variables defined in the motivational component. The pool of finite-state machine implements the available robot actions, and those actions are dynamically selected taking into account the motivational variables and the external stimuli. Thus, the robot is able to exhibit different behaviors even under similar conditions. A customized version of the "Speech Recognition and Audio Detection Test," proposed by the RoboCup Federation, has been used to illustrate how the architecture works and how it dynamically adapts and activates robots behaviors taking into account internal variables and external stimuli.

Robot-Assisted Free Flap in Head and Neck Reconstruction

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Han Gyeol Song

2013-07-01

Full Text Available BackgroundRobots have allowed head and neck surgeons to extirpate oropharyngeal tumors safely without the need for lip-split incision or mandibulotomy. Using robots in oropharyngeal reconstruction is new but essential for oropharyngeal defects that result from robotic tumor excision. We report our experience with robotic free-flap reconstruction of head and neck defects to exemplify the necessity for robotic reconstruction.MethodsWe investigated head and neck cancer patients who underwent ablation surgery and free-flap reconstruction by robot. Between July 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012, 5 cases were performed and patient demographics, location of tumor, pathologic stage, reconstruction methods, flap size, recipient vessel, necessary pedicle length, and operation time were investigated.ResultsAmong five free-flap reconstructions, four were radial forearm free flaps and one was an anterolateral thigh free-flap. Four flaps used the superior thyroid artery and one flap used a facial artery as the recipient vessel. The average pedicle length was 8.8 cm. Flap insetting and microanastomosis were achieved using a specially manufactured robotic instrument. The total operation time was 1,041.0 minutes (range, 814 to 1,132 minutes, and complications including flap necrosis, hematoma, and wound dehiscence did not occur.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates the clinically applicable use of robots in oropharyngeal reconstruction, especially using a free flap. A robot can assist the operator in insetting the flap at a deep portion of the oropharynx without the need to perform a traditional mandibulotomy. Robot-assisted reconstruction may substitute for existing surgical methods and is accepted as the most up-to-date method.

Wrist Rehabilitation Assisted by an Electromyography-Driven Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Robot After Stroke.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Xiao-Ling; Tong, Raymond Kai-yu; Ho, Newmen S K; Xue, Jing-jing; Rong, Wei; Li, Leonard S W

2015-09-01

Augmented physical training with assistance from robot and neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) may introduce intensive motor improvement in chronic stroke. To compare the rehabilitation effectiveness achieved by NMES robot-assisted wrist training and that by robot-assisted training. This study was a single-blinded randomized controlled trial with a 3-month follow-up. Twenty-six hemiplegic subjects with chronic stroke were randomly assigned to receive 20-session wrist training with an electromyography (EMG)-driven NMES robot (NMES robot group, n = 11) and with an EMG-driven robot (robot group, n = 15), completed within 7 consecutive weeks. Clinical scores, Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), Modified Ashworth Score (MAS), and Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) were used to evaluate the training effects before and after the training, as well as 3 months later. An EMG parameter, muscle co-contraction index, was also applied to investigate the session-by-session variation in muscular coordination patterns during the training. The improvement in FMA (shoulder/elbow, wrist/hand) obtained in the NMES robot group was more significant than the robot group (P rehabilitation progress. © The Author(s) 2014.

Robots for use in autism research.

Science.gov (United States)

Scassellati, Brian; Admoni, Henny; Matarić, Maja

2012-01-01

Autism spectrum disorders are a group of lifelong disabilities that affect people's ability to communicate and to understand social cues. Research into applying robots as therapy tools has shown that robots seem to improve engagement and elicit novel social behaviors from people (particularly children and teenagers) with autism. Robot therapy for autism has been explored as one of the first application domains in the field of socially assistive robotics (SAR), which aims to develop robots that assist people with special needs through social interactions. In this review, we discuss the past decade's work in SAR systems designed for autism therapy by analyzing robot design decisions, human-robot interactions, and system evaluations. We conclude by discussing challenges and future trends for this young but rapidly developing research area.

Intelligent Interaction for Human-Friendly Service Robot in Smart House Environment

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Z. Zenn Bien

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The smart house under consideration is a service-integrated complex system to assist older persons and/or people with disabilities. The primary goal of the system is to achieve independent living by various robotic devices and systems. Such a system is treated as a human-in-the loop system in which human- robot interaction takes place intensely and frequently. Based on our experiences of having designed and implemented a smart house environment, called Intelligent Sweet Home (ISH, we present a framework of realizing human-friendly HRI (human-robot interaction module with various effective techniques of computational intelligence. More specifically, we partition the robotic tasks of HRI module into three groups in consideration of the level of specificity, fuzziness or uncertainty of the context of the system, and present effective interaction method for each case. We first show a task planning algorithm and its architecture to deal with well-structured tasks autonomously by a simplified set of commands of the user instead of inconvenient manual operations. To provide with capability of interacting in a human-friendly way in a fuzzy context, it is proposed that the robot should make use of human bio-signals as input of the HRI module as shown in a hand gesture recognition system, called a soft remote control system. Finally we discuss a probabilistic fuzzy rule-based life-long learning system, equipped with intention reading capability by learning human behavioral patterns, which is introduced as a solution in uncertain and time-varying situations.

Touch versus In-Air Hand Gestures: Evaluating the Acceptance by Seniors of Human-Robot Interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Znagui Hassani, Anouar; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Ludden, Geke Dina Simone; Eertink, Henk

2011-01-01

Do elderly people have a preference between performing inair gestures or pressing screen buttons to interact with an assistive robot? This study attempts to provide answers to this question by measuring the level of acceptance, performance as well as knowledge of both interaction modalities during a

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic management of a caliceal diverticular calculus

Science.gov (United States)

Torricelli, Fabio Cesar Miranda; Batista, Lucas T; Colombo, Jose Roberto; Coelho, Rafael Ferreira

2014-01-01

Purpose To report the first case of robotic-assisted laparoscopic management of a symptomatic caliceal diverticular calculus and review the literature on laparoscopic treatment for this condition. Case report A 33-year-old obese woman with a 2×1 cm calculus within an anterior caliceal diverticulum located in the middle pole of the left kidney was referred to our service. She had already undergone two flexible ureterorenoscopies without success. We considered that a percutaneous approach would be very challenging due to stone location, thus we elected to perform a robotic-assisted laparoscopic procedure for stone removal and diverticulum fulguration. The procedure was uneventfully performed with no intraoperative or postoperative complications. The patient was discharged from the hospital on the second postoperative day and after 1.5 years of follow-up she is asymptomatic with no recurrence. Conclusions The robotic-assisted laparoscopic approach to caliceal diverticular calculi is feasible and safe, providing one more option for treatment of stones in challenging locations. PMID:25188925

Feeding assistive robotics, imaginaries and care

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nickelsen, Niels Christian Mossfeldt

2018-01-01

The media and political/managerial levels focus on the opportunities to re-perform Denmark through digitization. Feeding assistive robotics is a welfare technology, relevant to citizens with low or no function in their arms. Despite national dissemination strategies, it proves difficult to recruit...

A Vision-Based Approach for Estimating Contact Forces: Applications to Robot-Assisted Surgery

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C. W. Kennedy

2005-01-01

Full Text Available The primary goal of this paper is to provide force feedback to the user using vision-based techniques. The approach presented in this paper can be used to provide force feedback to the surgeon for robot-assisted procedures. As proof of concept, we have developed a linear elastic finite element model (FEM of a rubber membrane whereby the nodal displacements of the membrane points are measured using vision. These nodal displacements are the input into our finite element model. In the first experiment, we track the deformation of the membrane in real-time through stereovision and compare it with the actual deformation computed through forward kinematics of the robot arm. On the basis of accurate deformation estimation through vision, we test the physical model of a membrane developed through finite element techniques. The FEM model accurately reflects the interaction forces on the user console when the interaction forces of the robot arm with the membrane are compared with those experienced by the surgeon on the console through the force feedback device. In the second experiment, the PHANToM haptic interface device is used to control the Mitsubishi PA-10 robot arm and interact with the membrane in real-time. Image data obtained through vision of the deformation of the membrane is used as the displacement input for the FEM model to compute the local interaction forces which are then displayed on the user console for providing force feedback and hence closing the loop.

High level functions for the intuitive use of an assistive robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Lebec, Olivier; Ben Ghezala, Mohamed Walid; Leynart, Violaine; Laffont, Isabelle; Fattal, Charles; Devilliers, Laurence; Chastagnol, Clement; Martin, Jean-Claude; Mezouar, Youcef; Korrapatti, Hermanth; Dupourqué, Vincent; Leroux, Christophe

2013-06-01

This document presents the research project ARMEN (Assistive Robotics to Maintain Elderly People in a Natural environment), aimed at the development of a user friendly robot with advanced functions for assistance to elderly or disabled persons at home. Focus is given to the robot SAM (Smart Autonomous Majordomo) and its new features of navigation, manipulation, object recognition, and knowledge representation developed for the intuitive supervision of the robot. The results of the technical evaluations show the value and potential of these functions for practical applications. The paper also documents the details of the clinical evaluations carried out with elderly and disabled persons in a therapeutic setting to validate the project.

Perceptions of a Soft Robotic Tentacle in Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Jonas

2018-01-01

Soft robotics technology has been proposed for a number of applications that involve human-robot interaction. This video documents a platform created to explore human perceptions of soft robots in interaction. The video presents select footage from an interaction experiment conducted...

Effect of cognitive biases on human-robot interaction: a case study of robot's misattribution

OpenAIRE

Biswas, Mriganka; Murray, John

2014-01-01

This paper presents a model for developing long-term human-robot interactions and social relationships based on the principle of 'human' cognitive biases applied to a robot. The aim of this work is to study how a robot influenced with human ‘misattribution’ helps to build better human-robot interactions than unbiased robots. The results presented in this paper suggest that it is important to know the effect of cognitive biases in human characteristics and interactions in order to better u...

Negative Affect in Human Robot Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rehm, Matthias; Krogsager, Anders

2013-01-01

The vision of social robotics sees robots moving more and more into unrestricted social environments, where robots interact closely with users in their everyday activities, maybe even establishing relationships with the user over time. In this paper we present a field trial with a robot in a semi...

Affective and Engagement Issues in the Conception and Assessment of a Robot-Assisted Psychomotor Therapy for Persons with Dementia

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Natacha Rouaix

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The interest in robot-assisted therapies (RAT for dementia care has grown steadily in recent years. However, RAT using humanoid robots is still a novel practice for which the adhesion mechanisms, indications and benefits remain unclear. Also, little is known about how the robot's behavioral and affective style might promote engagement of persons with dementia (PwD in RAT. The present study sought to investigate the use of a humanoid robot in a psychomotor therapy for PwD. We examined the robot's potential to engage participants in the intervention and its effect on their emotional state. A brief psychomotor therapy program involving the robot as the therapist's assistant was created. For this purpose, a corpus of social and physical behaviors for the robot and a “control software” for customizing the program and operating the robot were also designed. Particular attention was given to components of the RAT that could promote participant's engagement (robot's interaction style, personalization of contents. In the pilot assessment of the intervention nine PwD (7 women and 2 men, M age = 86 y/o hospitalized in a geriatrics unit participated in four individual therapy sessions: one classic therapy (CT session (patient- therapist and three RAT sessions (patient-therapist-robot. Outcome criteria for the evaluation of the intervention included: participant's engagement, emotional state and well-being; satisfaction of the intervention, appreciation of the robot, and empathy-related behaviors in human-robot interaction (HRI. Results showed a high constructive engagement in both CT and RAT sessions. More positive emotional responses in participants were observed in RAT compared to CT. RAT sessions were better appreciated than CT sessions. The use of a social robot as a mediating tool appeared to promote the involvement of PwD in the therapeutic intervention increasing their immediate wellbeing and satisfaction.

Robotic-assisted vesicovaginal fistula repair using an extravesical approach without interposition grafting.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Erin; Wu, Maria Y; MacMillan, J Barry

2018-03-01

Post-hysterectomy vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) is rare. In addition to conventional abdominal and vaginal approaches, robotic-assisted VVF repairs have recently been described. We present a case of an extravesical, robotic-assisted VVF repair, without placement of an interposition graft performed in a Canadian teaching center. A 51-year-old woman presented with urinary incontinence 5 days after laparoscopic hysterectomy. Computed tomography cystogram, cystoscopy, and methylene blue dye test, confirmed a VVF above the bladder trigone. The patient underwent a robotic-assisted VVF repair 3 months after presentation, without complication. An abdominal, extravesical approach was used. Operative time was 116 min and repeat CT cystogram showed no evidence of persistent. We have demonstrated that a VVF repair, using a robotic-assisted, extravesical approach without interposition graft placement, can be safe, less invasive and have a successful outcome at 1 year of follow-up.

Mina: A Sensorimotor Robotic Orthosis for Mobility Assistance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anil K. Raj

2011-01-01

Full Text Available While most mobility options for persons with paraplegia or paraparesis employ wheeled solutions, significant adverse health, psychological, and social consequences result from wheelchair confinement. Modern robotic exoskeleton devices for gait assistance and rehabilitation, however, can support legged locomotion systems for those with lower extremity weakness or paralysis. The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC has developed the Mina, a prototype sensorimotor robotic orthosis for mobility assistance that provides mobility capability for paraplegic and paraparetic users. This paper describes the initial concept, design goals, and methods of this wearable overground robotic mobility device, which uses compliant actuation to power the hip and knee joints. Paralyzed users can balance and walk using the device over level terrain with the assistance of forearm crutches employing a quadrupedal gait. We have initiated sensory substitution feedback mechanisms to augment user sensory perception of his or her lower extremities. Using this sensory feedback, we hypothesize that users will ambulate with a more natural, upright gait and will be able to directly control the gait parameters and respond to perturbations. This may allow bipedal (with minimal support gait in future prototypes.

Gestalt Processing in Human-Robot Interaction: A Novel Account for Autism Research

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Maya Dimitrova

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a novel analysis focused on showing that education is possible through robotic enhancement of the Gestalt processing in children with autism, which is not comparable to alternative educational methods such as demonstration and instruction provided solely by human tutors. The paper underlines the conceptualization of cognitive processing of holistic representations traditionally named in psychology as Gestalt structures, emerging in the process of human-robot interaction in educational settings. Two cognitive processes are proposed in the present study - bounding and unfolding - and their role in Gestalt emergence is outlined. The proposed theoretical approach explains novel findings of autistic perception and gives guidelines for design of robot-assistants to the rehabilitation process.

A Dynamic Non Energy Storing Guidance Constraint with Motion Redirection for Robot Assisted Surgery

Science.gov (United States)

2016-12-01

move during the operation. Robot -assisted beating heart surgery is an example of procedures that can benefit from dynamic constraints. Their...A Dynamic Non-Energy-Storing Guidance Constraint with Motion Redirection for Robot -Assisted Surgery Nima Enayati, Eva C. Alves Costa, Giancarlo...Momi, and G. Ferrigno, “Haptics in Robot -Assisted Surgery : Challenges and Benefits,” IEEE Rev. Biomed. Eng., 2016. [2] L. B. Rosenberg, “Virtual

Speech-Based Human and Service Robot Interaction: An Application for Mexican Dysarthric People

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Santiago Omar Caballero Morales

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder due to weakness or poor coordination of the speech muscles. This condition can be caused by a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or by a degenerative neurological disease. Commonly, people with this disorder also have muscular dystrophy, which restricts their use of switches or keyboards for communication or control of assistive devices (i.e., an electric wheelchair or a service robot. In this case, speech recognition is an attractive alternative for interaction and control of service robots, despite the difficulty of achieving robust recognition performance. In this paper we present a speech recognition system for human and service robot interaction for Mexican Spanish dysarthric speakers. The core of the system consisted of a Speaker Adaptive (SA recognition system trained with normal-speech. Features such as on-line control of the language model perplexity and the adding of vocabulary, contribute to high recognition performance. Others, such as assessment and text-to-speech (TTS synthesis, contribute to a more complete interaction with a service robot. Live tests were performed with two mild dysarthric speakers, achieving recognition accuracies of 90–95% for spontaneous speech and 95–100% of accomplished simulated service robot tasks.

Incorporating robotic-assisted surgery for endometrial cancer staging: Analysis of morbidity and costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Bogani, Giorgio; Multinu, Francesco; Dowdy, Sean C; Cliby, William A; Wilson, Timothy O; Gostout, Bobbie S; Weaver, Amy L; Borah, Bijan J; Killian, Jill M; Bijlani, Akash; Angioni, Stefano; Mariani, Andrea

2016-05-01

To evaluate how the introduction of robotic-assisted surgery affects treatment-related morbidity and cost of endometrial cancer (EC) staging. We retrospectively reviewed the records of consecutive patients with stage I-III EC undergoing surgical staging between 2007 and 2012 at our institution. Costs (from surgery to 30days after surgery) were set based on the Medicare cost-to-charge ratio for each year and inflated to 2014 values. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) was used to decrease the allocation bias when comparing outcomes between surgical groups. We focused our analysis on the 251 EC patients who had robotic-assisted surgery and the 384 who had open staging. During the study period, the use of robotic-assisted surgery increased and open staging decreased (P<0.001). Correcting group imbalances by using IPW methodology, we observed that patients undergoing robotic-assisted staging had a significantly lower postoperative complication rate, lower blood transfusion rate, longer median operating time, shorter median length of stay, and lower readmission rate than patients undergoing open staging (all P<0.001). Overall 30-day costs were similar between the 2 groups, with robotic-assisted surgery having significantly higher median operating room costs ($2820 difference; P<0.001) but lower median room and board costs ($2929 difference; P<0.001) than open surgery. Increasing experience with robotic-assisted staging was significantly associated with a decrease in median operating time (P=0.002) and length of stay (P=0.003). The implementation of robotic-assisted surgery for EC staging improves patient outcomes. It provides women the benefits of minimally invasive surgery without increasing costs and potentially improves patient turnover. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Laparoscopic hand-assisted versus robotic-assisted laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy: experience of 103 consecutive cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Kannan, Umashankkar; Ecker, Brett L; Choudhury, Rashikh; Dempsey, Daniel T; Williams, Noel N; Dumon, Kristoffel R

2016-01-01

Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy has become a stand-alone procedure in the treatment of morbid obesity. There are very few reports on the use of robotic approach in sleeve gastrectomy. The purpose of this retrospective study is to report our early experience of robotic-assisted laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (RALSG) using a proctored training model with comparison to an institutional cohort of patients who underwent laparoscopic hand-assisted sleeve gastrectomy (LASG). University hospital. The study included 108 patients who underwent sleeve gastrectomy either via the laparoscopic-assisted or robot-assisted approach during the study period. Of these 108 patients, 62 underwent LASG and 46 underwent RALSG. The console surgeon in the RALSG is a clinical year 4 (CY4) surgery resident. All CY4 surgery residents received targeted simulation training before their rotation. The console surgeon is proctored by the primary surgeon with assistance as needed by the second surgeon. The patients in the robotic and laparoscopic cohorts did not have a statistical difference in their demographic characteristics, preoperative co-morbidities, or complications. The mean operating time did not differ significantly between the 2 cohorts (121 min versus 110 min, P = .07). Patient follow-up in the LSG and RALSG were 91% and 90% at 3 months, 62% and 64% at 6 months, and 60% and 55% at 1 year, respectively. The mean percentage estimated weight loss (EWL%) at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year was greater in the robotic group but not statistically significant (27 versus 22 at 3 mo [P = .05] and 39 versus 34 at 6 mo [P = .025], 57 versus 48 at 1 yr [P = .09]). There was no mortality in either group. Early results of our experience with RALSG indicate low perioperative complication rates and comparable weight loss with LASG. The concept of a stepwise education model needs further validation with larger studies. Copyright © 2016 American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc

Human-Robot Interaction and Human Self-Realization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørskov, Marco

2014-01-01

is to test the basis for this type of discrimination when it comes to human-robot interaction. Furthermore, the paper will take Heidegger's warning concerning technology as a vantage point and explore the possibility of human-robot interaction forming a praxis that might help humans to be with robots beyond...

Toward a framework for levels of robot autonomy in human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Beer, Jenay M; Fisk, Arthur D; Rogers, Wendy A

2014-07-01

A critical construct related to human-robot interaction (HRI) is autonomy, which varies widely across robot platforms. Levels of robot autonomy (LORA), ranging from teleoperation to fully autonomous systems, influence the way in which humans and robots may interact with one another. Thus, there is a need to understand HRI by identifying variables that influence - and are influenced by - robot autonomy. Our overarching goal is to develop a framework for levels of robot autonomy in HRI. To reach this goal, the framework draws links between HRI and human-automation interaction, a field with a long history of studying and understanding human-related variables. The construct of autonomy is reviewed and redefined within the context of HRI. Additionally, the framework proposes a process for determining a robot's autonomy level, by categorizing autonomy along a 10-point taxonomy. The framework is intended to be treated as guidelines to determine autonomy, categorize the LORA along a qualitative taxonomy, and consider which HRI variables (e.g., acceptance, situation awareness, reliability) may be influenced by the LORA.

Anesthetic management of robot-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy

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Anil Karlekar

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Myasthenia gravis (MG is a rare disorder involving neuromuscular junction. In conjunction with medical therapy, thymectomy is a known modality of treatment of MG and has shown to increase the probability of remission and overall symptomatic improvement. For minimally invasive thymectomy, video-.assisted thoracoscopic surgery has been the preferred surgical approach till recently. The robotic surgical procedure must necessarily bring new challenges to the anesthesiologists to effectively meet the specific requirements of the technique. At present, there is a paucity of literature regarding the anesthetic concerns of robotic assisted thymectomy, patient in question specifically posed a challenge since different maneuvers and techniques had to be tried to obtain optimum surgical conditions with stable ventilatory and hemodynamic parameters. Concerns of patient positioning and hemodynamic monitoring have also been discussed.

[Initial experience in robot-assisted colorectal surgery in Mexico].

Science.gov (United States)

Villanueva-Sáenz, Eduardo; Ramírez-Ramírez, Moisés Marino; Zubieta-O'Farrill, Gregorio; García-Hernández, Luis

Colorectal surgery has advanced notably since the introduction of the mechanical suture and the minimally invasive approach. Robotic surgery began in order to satisfy the needs of the patient-doctor relationship, and migrated to the area of colorectal surgery. An initial report is presented on the experience of managing colorectal disease using robot-assisted surgery, as well as an analysis of the current role of this platform. A retrospective study was conducted in order to review five patients with colorectal disease operated using a robot-assisted technique over one year in the initial phase of the learning curve. Gender, age, diagnosis and surgical indication, surgery performed, surgical time, conversion, bleeding, post-operative complications, and hospital stay, were analysed and described. A literature review was performed on the role of robotic assisted surgery in colorectal disease and cancer. The study included 5 patients, 3 men and 2 women, with a mean age of 62.2 years. Two of them were low anterior resections with colorectal primary anastomoses, one of them extended with a loop protection ileostomy, a Frykman-Goldberg procedure, and two left hemicolectomies with primary anastomoses. The mean operating time was 6hours and robot-assisted 4hours 20minutes. There were no conversions and the mean hospital stay was 5 days. This technology is currently being used worldwide in different surgical centres because of its advantages that have been clinically demonstrated by various studies. We report the first colorectal surgical cases in Mexico, with promising results. There is enough evidence to support and recommend the use of this technology as a viable and safe option. Copyright © 2016 Academia Mexicana de Cirugía A.C. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

Robotic assisted radical prostatectomy: a different treatment for prostate cancer?

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Alexandre Den Julio

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Considering the Health Care System in Brazil, a developing country,and public healthcare policies, robotic surgery is a reality to veryfew citizens. Therefore, robotic assisted radical prostatectomy isfar removed from the daily practice of the vast majority of Brazilianurologists. Scientific evidence of the superiority of robotic assistedradical prostatectomy does not presently justify public investmentsfor widespread development of robotic centers. Maybe over timeand with reductions in costs, robotic technology will become amore established practice, as observed in other countries, and morefeasible for the Brazilian urological community.

Vision-Based Interfaces Applied to Assistive Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elisa Perez

2013-02-01

Full Text Available This paper presents two vision-based interfaces for disabled people to command a mobile robot for personal assistance. The developed interfaces can be subdivided according to the algorithm of image processing implemented for the detection and tracking of two different body regions. The first interface detects and tracks movements of the user's head, and these movements are transformed into linear and angular velocities in order to command a mobile robot. The second interface detects and tracks movements of the user's hand, and these movements are similarly transformed. In addition, this paper also presents the control laws for the robot. The experimental results demonstrate good performance and balance between complexity and feasibility for real-time applications.

Mina: A Sensorimotor Robotic Orthosis for Mobility Assistance

OpenAIRE

Raj, Anil K.; Neuhaus, Peter D.; Moucheboeuf, Adrien M.; Noorden, Jerryll H.; Lecoutre, David V.

2011-01-01

While most mobility options for persons with paraplegia or paraparesis employ wheeled solutions, significant adverse health, psychological, and social consequences result from wheelchair confinement. Modern robotic exoskeleton devices for gait assistance and rehabilitation, however, can support legged locomotion systems for those with lower extremity weakness or paralysis. The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) has developed the Mina, a prototype sensorimotor robotic ort...

Videocirurgia colorretal com assistência robótica: o próximo passo? Robotic assisted colorrectal surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergio Eduardo Alonso Araujo

2008-09-01

Full Text Available O desenvolvimento de técnicas minimamente invasivas é um dos mais importantes avanços da cirurgia colorretal. A assistência robótica integra o arsenal de técnicas em cirurgia minimamente invasiva, e vem sendo aplicado em cirurgia colorretal por um restrito grupo de cirurgiões em alguns centros ao redor do mundo com resultados iniciais que merecem atenção. O objetivo do presente estudo é analisar os resultados do emprego da assistência robótica em videocirurgia colorretal. Dentre as vantagens associadas ao emprego de robôs em videocirurgia colorretal, figuram o incremento na precisão dos movimentos e a visão tridimensional. A experiência clínica é ainda pequena, e advém de uma série de casos e estudos comparativos com a videocirurgia colorretal sem assistência robótica com ainda pequeno número de casos. A dissecção pélvica com incremento da preservação autonômica parece ser a maior vantagem associada à assistência robótica em videocirurgia colorretal. Somente através do treinamento de um número mais representativo de cirurgiões colorretais, bem como com a expansão da experiência clínica será possível prever com maior precisão o papel da assistência robótica em videocirurgia colorretal.The development of minimally invasive surgical techniques represents an important aspect of modern surgical research. Robot-assisted minimally invasive colorectal surgery represents a way of assisting laparoscopic colorectal procedures. Robotic technology overcomes some of these limitations by successfully providing intuitive motion and enhanced precision and accuracy, in an environment that is much more ergonomic. A restrict number of surgeons in specialized centers around the world have been applying robotics. In this review, current evidence about different technologies and its place in colorectal surgery is evaluated. The feasibility of performing robot-assisted colorectal operations has been demonstrated though case

Effect of Regional Hospital Competition and Hospital Financial Status on the Use of Robotic-Assisted Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Jason D; Tergas, Ana I; Hou, June Y; Burke, William M; Chen, Ling; Hu, Jim C; Neugut, Alfred I; Ananth, Cande V; Hershman, Dawn L

2016-07-01

Despite the lack of efficacy data, robotic-assisted surgery has diffused rapidly into practice. Marketing to physicians, hospitals, and patients has been widespread, but how this marketing has contributed to the diffusion of the technology remains unknown. To examine the effect of regional hospital competition and hospital financial status on the use of robotic-assisted surgery for 5 commonly performed procedures. A cohort study of 221 637 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy, total nephrectomy, partial nephrectomy, hysterectomy, or oophorectomy at 1370 hospitals in the United States from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2011, was conducted. The association between hospital competition, hospital financial status, and performance of robotic-assisted surgery was examined. The association between hospital competition was measured with the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), hospital financial status was estimated as operating margin, and performance of robotic-assisted surgery was examined using multivariate mixed-effects regression models. We identified 221 637 patients who underwent one of the procedures of interest. The cohort included 30 345 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy; 20 802, total nephrectomy; 8060, partial nephrectomy; 134 985, hysterectomy; and 27 445, oophorectomy. Robotic-assisted operations were performed for 20 500 (67.6%) radical prostatectomies, 1405 (6.8%) total nephrectomies, 2759 (34.2%) partial nephrectomies, 14 047 (10.4%) hysterectomies, and 1782 (6.5%) oophorectomies. Use of robotic-assisted surgery increased for each procedure from January 2010 through December 2011. For all 5 operations, increased market competition (as measured by the HHI) was associated with increased use of robotic-assisted surgery. For prostatectomy, the risk ratios (95% CIs) for undergoing a robotic-assisted procedure were 2.20 (1.50-3.24) at hospitals in moderately competitive markets and 2.64 (1.84-3.78) for highly competitive markets

ROBOT-ASSISTED LAPAROSCOPIC PROSTATECTOMY: OUR EXPERIENCE

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S. N. Nesterov

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Background. Retropubic radical prostatectomy (RPE is now the gold standard of treatment for locally advanced prostate cancer (PC. However, robot-assisted RPE procedures using the da Vinci system are finding increasing acceptance.Materials and methods. The authors conducted a prospective study of 60 robot-assisted prostatectomies made at the Clinic of Urology, N.I. Pirogov National Medical Surgical Center, in the period January 2009 to December 2010.Results. The duration of an operation averaged 230 min; the average amount of blood loss was 200 ml. The mean duration of postoperative analgesia was 2,7 days. That of urinary catheterization was 8.5 days. A normal postoperative course was noted in most cases (88,4 %. Seven patients were found to have 8 (13,3 % mild and moderate complications. A pathohistological study revealed a positive surgical margin of resection in 21,7 % of the patients, extracapsular tumor growth in 21,7 %, and seminal vesicle invasion in 23,3 %. Tumor-affected regional lymph nodes were detected in 1 (1,7 % patient. In our observed series, 82 and 93 % of the subjects completely retained urine after 6 and 12 moths, respectively. Throughout the follow-up, erectile function recovered in 7 of the 15 patients undergoing a nerve-sparing surgical procedure.Conclusion. Postoperative results in our series of interventions are comparable to those obtained in the studies by Russian and foreign colleagues at the early stage of mastering this procedure. By considering a few observations, it is today difficult to say that our study is valid in the context of evidence-based medicine. Estimation of the benefits of robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy calls for long-term multicenter randomized trials.

Robotic Assistance for Training Finger Movement Using a Hebbian Model: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

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Rowe, Justin B; Chan, Vicky; Ingemanson, Morgan L; Cramer, Steven C; Wolbrecht, Eric T; Reinkensmeyer, David J

2017-08-01

Robots that physically assist movement are increasingly used in rehabilitation therapy after stroke, yet some studies suggest robotic assistance discourages effort and reduces motor learning. To determine the therapeutic effects of high and low levels of robotic assistance during finger training. We designed a protocol that varied the amount of robotic assistance while controlling the number, amplitude, and exerted effort of training movements. Participants (n = 30) with a chronic stroke and moderate hemiparesis (average Box and Blocks Test 32 ± 18 and upper extremity Fugl-Meyer score 46 ± 12) actively moved their index and middle fingers to targets to play a musical game similar to GuitarHero 3 h/wk for 3 weeks. The participants were randomized to receive high assistance (causing 82% success at hitting targets) or low assistance (55% success). Participants performed ~8000 movements during 9 training sessions. Both groups improved significantly at the 1-month follow-up on functional and impairment-based motor outcomes, on depression scores, and on self-efficacy of hand function, with no difference between groups in the primary endpoint (change in Box and Blocks). High assistance boosted motivation, as well as secondary motor outcomes (Fugl-Meyer and Lateral Pinch Strength)-particularly for individuals with more severe finger motor deficits. Individuals with impaired finger proprioception at baseline benefited less from the training. Robot-assisted training can promote key psychological outcomes known to modulate motor learning and retention. Furthermore, the therapeutic effectiveness of robotic assistance appears to derive at least in part from proprioceptive stimulation, consistent with a Hebbian plasticity model.

Floor Covering and Surface Identification for Assistive Mobile Robotic Real-Time Room Localization Application

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Michael Gillham

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Assistive robotic applications require systems capable of interaction in the human world, a workspace which is highly dynamic and not always predictable. Mobile assistive devices face the additional and complex problem of when and if intervention should occur; therefore before any trajectory assistance is given, the robotic device must know where it is in real-time, without unnecessary disruption or delay to the user requirements. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel robust method for determining room identification from floor features in a real-time computational frame for autonomous and assistive robotics in the human environment. We utilize two inexpensive sensors: an optical mouse sensor for straightforward and rapid, texture or pattern sampling, and a four color photodiode light sensor for fast color determination. We show how data relating floor texture and color obtained from typical dynamic human environments, using these two sensors, compares favorably with data obtained from a standard webcam. We show that suitable data can be extracted from these two sensors at a rate 16 times faster than a standard webcam, and that these data are in a form which can be rapidly processed using readily available classification techniques, suitable for real-time system application. We achieved a 95% correct classification accuracy identifying 133 rooms’ flooring from 35 classes, suitable for fast coarse global room localization application, boundary crossing detection, and additionally some degree of surface type identification.

Robot-Assisted Free Flap in Head and Neck Reconstruction

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Han Gyeol Song

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Background  Robots have allowed head and neck surgeons to extirpate oropharyngealtumors safely without the need for lip-split incision or mandibulotomy. Using robots inoropharyngealreconstruction is newbut essentialfor oropharyngeal defectsthatresultfromrobotic tumor excision. We report our experience with robotic free-flap reconstruction ofhead and neck defectsto exemplify the necessity forrobotic reconstruction.Methods  We investigated head and neck cancer patients who underwent ablation surgeryand free-flap reconstruction by robot. Between July 1, 2011 andMarch 31, 2012, 5 caseswereperformed and patient demographics, location of tumor, pathologic stage, reconstructionmethods, flap size, recipient vessel, necessary pedicle length, and operation time wereinvestigated.Results  Among five free-flap reconstructions, four were radial forearm free flaps and onewas an anterolateral thigh free-flap. Four flaps used the superior thyroid artery and oneflap used a facial artery as the recipient vessel. The average pedicle length was 8.8 cm. Flapinsetting and microanastomosis were achieved using a specially manufactured roboticinstrument. The total operation timewas 1,041.0 minutes(range, 814 to 1,132 minutes, andcomplicationsincluding flap necrosis, hematoma, andwound dehiscence did not occur.Conclusions  Thisstudy demonstratesthe clinically applicable use ofrobotsin oropharyngealreconstruction, especially using a free flap. A robot can assist the operator in insettingthe flap at a deep portion of the oropharynx without the need to perform a traditionalmandibulotomy. Robot-assisted reconstruction may substitute for existing surgical methodsand is accepted asthemost up-to-datemethod.

Extending NGOMSL Model for Human-Humanoid Robot Interaction in the Soccer Robotics Domain

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Rajesh Elara Mohan

2008-01-01

Full Text Available In the field of human-computer interaction, the Natural Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection rules Language (NGOMSL model is one of the most popular methods for modelling knowledge and cognitive processes for rapid usability evaluation. The NGOMSL model is a description of the knowledge that a user must possess to operate the system represented as elementary actions for effective usability evaluations. In the last few years, mobile robots have been exhibiting a stronger presence in commercial markets and very little work has been done with NGOMSL modelling for usability evaluations in the human-robot interaction discipline. This paper focuses on extending the NGOMSL model for usability evaluation of human-humanoid robot interaction in the soccer robotics domain. The NGOMSL modelled human-humanoid interaction design of Robo-Erectus Junior was evaluated and the results of the experiments showed that the interaction design was able to find faults in an average time of 23.84 s. Also, the interaction design was able to detect the fault within the 60 s in 100% of the cases. The Evaluated Interaction design was adopted by our Robo-Erectus Junior version of humanoid robots in the RoboCup 2007 humanoid soccer league.

Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Management of Caliceal Diverticular Calculi

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Anneleen Verbrugghe

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Standard treatment modalities of caliceal diverticular calculi range from extracorporal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL over retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS, percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL and laparoscopic stone removal. A 55-year-old woman presented with a history of pyelonephritis based on a caliceal diverticular calculus. Due to the narrow infundibulum and anterior location, a robot-assisted laparoscopic calicotomy with extraction of the calculi and fulguration of the diverticulum was performed, with no specific perioperative problems and good stone-free results. This article shows technical feasibility with minimal morbidity of robot-assisted laparoscopic stone removal and obliteration of a caliceal diverticulum.

Locomotor Sub-functions for Control of Assistive Wearable Robots

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Maziar A. Sharbafi

2017-09-01

Full Text Available A primary goal of comparative biomechanics is to understand the fundamental physics of locomotion within an evolutionary context. Such an understanding of legged locomotion results in a transition from copying nature to borrowing strategies for interacting with the physical world regarding design and control of bio-inspired legged robots or robotic assistive devices. Inspired from nature, legged locomotion can be composed of three locomotor sub-functions, which are intrinsically interrelated: Stance: redirecting the center of mass by exerting forces on the ground. Swing: cycling the legs between ground contacts. Balance: maintaining body posture. With these three sub-functions, one can understand, design and control legged locomotory systems with formulating them in simpler separated tasks. Coordination between locomotor sub-functions in a harmonized manner appears then as an additional problem when considering legged locomotion. However, biological locomotion shows that appropriate design and control of each sub-function simplifies coordination. It means that only limited exchange of sensory information between the different locomotor sub-function controllers is required enabling the envisioned modular architecture of the locomotion control system. In this paper, we present different studies on implementing different locomotor sub-function controllers on models, robots, and an exoskeleton in addition to demonstrating their abilities in explaining humans' control strategies.

Locomotor Sub-functions for Control of Assistive Wearable Robots.

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Sharbafi, Maziar A; Seyfarth, Andre; Zhao, Guoping

2017-01-01

A primary goal of comparative biomechanics is to understand the fundamental physics of locomotion within an evolutionary context. Such an understanding of legged locomotion results in a transition from copying nature to borrowing strategies for interacting with the physical world regarding design and control of bio-inspired legged robots or robotic assistive devices. Inspired from nature, legged locomotion can be composed of three locomotor sub-functions, which are intrinsically interrelated: Stance : redirecting the center of mass by exerting forces on the ground. Swing : cycling the legs between ground contacts. Balance : maintaining body posture. With these three sub-functions, one can understand, design and control legged locomotory systems with formulating them in simpler separated tasks. Coordination between locomotor sub-functions in a harmonized manner appears then as an additional problem when considering legged locomotion. However, biological locomotion shows that appropriate design and control of each sub-function simplifies coordination. It means that only limited exchange of sensory information between the different locomotor sub-function controllers is required enabling the envisioned modular architecture of the locomotion control system. In this paper, we present different studies on implementing different locomotor sub-function controllers on models, robots, and an exoskeleton in addition to demonstrating their abilities in explaining humans' control strategies.

Human-Robot Interaction: Status and Challenges.

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Sheridan, Thomas B

2016-06-01

The current status of human-robot interaction (HRI) is reviewed, and key current research challenges for the human factors community are described. Robots have evolved from continuous human-controlled master-slave servomechanisms for handling nuclear waste to a broad range of robots incorporating artificial intelligence for many applications and under human supervisory control. This mini-review describes HRI developments in four application areas and what are the challenges for human factors research. In addition to a plethora of research papers, evidence of success is manifest in live demonstrations of robot capability under various forms of human control. HRI is a rapidly evolving field. Specialized robots under human teleoperation have proven successful in hazardous environments and medical application, as have specialized telerobots under human supervisory control for space and repetitive industrial tasks. Research in areas of self-driving cars, intimate collaboration with humans in manipulation tasks, human control of humanoid robots for hazardous environments, and social interaction with robots is at initial stages. The efficacy of humanoid general-purpose robots has yet to be proven. HRI is now applied in almost all robot tasks, including manufacturing, space, aviation, undersea, surgery, rehabilitation, agriculture, education, package fetch and delivery, policing, and military operations. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Predicting Functional Recovery in Chronic Stroke Rehabilitation Using Event-Related Desynchronization-Synchronization during Robot-Assisted Movement

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Gramigna, Cristina; Franceschetti, Silvana

2016-01-01

Although rehabilitation robotics seems to be a promising therapy in the rehabilitation of the upper limb in stroke patients, consensus is still lacking on its additive effects. Therefore, there is a need for determining the possible success of robotic interventions on selected patients, which in turn determine the necessity for new investigating instruments supporting the treatment decision-making process and customization. The objective of the work presented in this preliminary study was to verify that fully robot assistance would not affect the physiological oscillatory cortical activity related to a functional movement in healthy subjects. Further, the clinical results following the robotic treatment of a chronic stroke patient, who positively reacted to the robotic intervention, were analyzed and discussed. First results show that there is no difference in EEG activation pattern between assisted and no-assisted movement in healthy subjects. Even more importantly, the patient's pretreatment EEG activation pattern in no-assisted movement was completely altered, while it recovered to a quasi-physiological one in robot-assisted movement. The functional improvement following treatment was large. Using pretreatment EEG recording during robot-assisted movement might be a valid approach to assess the potential ability of the patient for recovering. PMID:27057546

Human-robot interaction: kinematics and muscle activity inside a powered compliant knee exoskeleton.

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Knaepen, Kristel; Beyl, Pieter; Duerinck, Saartje; Hagman, Friso; Lefeber, Dirk; Meeusen, Romain

2014-11-01

Until today it is not entirely clear how humans interact with automated gait rehabilitation devices and how we can, based on that interaction, maximize the effectiveness of these exoskeletons. The goal of this study was to gain knowledge on the human-robot interaction, in terms of kinematics and muscle activity, between a healthy human motor system and a powered knee exoskeleton (i.e., KNEXO). Therefore, temporal and spatial gait parameters, human joint kinematics, exoskeleton kinetics and muscle activity during four different walking trials in 10 healthy male subjects were studied. Healthy subjects can walk with KNEXO in patient-in-charge mode with some slight constraints in kinematics and muscle activity primarily due to inertia of the device. Yet, during robot-in-charge walking the muscular constraints are reversed by adding positive power to the leg swing, compensating in part this inertia. Next to that, KNEXO accurately records and replays the right knee kinematics meaning that subject-specific trajectories can be implemented as a target trajectory during assisted walking. No significant differences in the human response to the interaction with KNEXO in low and high compliant assistance could be pointed out. This is in contradiction with our hypothesis that muscle activity would decrease with increasing assistance. It seems that the differences between the parameter settings of low and high compliant control might not be sufficient to observe clear effects in healthy subjects. Moreover, we should take into account that KNEXO is a unilateral, 1 degree-of-freedom device.

Hand-assisted hybrid laparoscopic-robotic total proctocolectomy with ileal pouch--anal anastomosis.

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Morelli, Luca; Guadagni, Simone; Mariniello, Maria Donatella; Furbetta, Niccolò; Pisano, Roberta; D'Isidoro, Cristiano; Caprili, Giovanni; Marciano, Emanuele; Di Candio, Giulio; Boggi, Ugo; Mosca, Franco

2015-08-01

Few studies have reported minimally invasive total proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) for ulcerative colitis (UC) and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). We herein report a novel hand-assisted hybrid laparoscopic-robotic technique for patients with FAP and UC. Between February 2010 and March 2014, six patients underwent hand-assisted hybrid laparoscopic-robotic total proctocolectomy with IPAA. The abdominal colectomy was performed laparoscopically with hand assistance through a transverse suprapubic incision, also used to fashion the ileal pouch. The proctectomy was carried out with the da Vinci Surgical System. The IPAA was hand-sewn through a trans-anal approach. The procedure was complemented by a temporary diverting loop ileostomy. The mean hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS) time was 154.6 (±12.8) min whereas the mean robotic time was 93.6 (±8.1) min. In all cases, a nerve-sparing proctectomy was performed, and no conversion to traditional laparotomy was required. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 13.2 (±7.4) days. No anastomotic leakage was observed. To date, no autonomic neurological disorders have been observed with a mean of 5.8 (±1.3) bowel movements per day. The hand-assisted hybrid laparoscopic-robotic approach to total proctocolectomy with IPAA has not been previously described. Our report shows the feasibility of this hybrid approach, which surpasses most of the limitations of pure laparoscopic and robotic techniques. Further experience is necessary to refine the technique and fully assess its potential advantages.

Spatiotemporal Aspects of Engagement during Dialogic Storytelling Child–Robot Interaction

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Scott Heath

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The success of robotic agents in close proximity of humans depends on their capacity to engage in social interactions and maintain these interactions over periods of time that are suitable for learning. A critical requirement is the ability to modify the behavior of the robot contingently to the attentional and social cues signaled by the human. A benchmark challenge for an engaging social robot is that of storytelling. In this paper, we present an exploratory study to investigate dialogic storytelling—storytelling with contingent responses—using a child-friendly robot. The aim of the study was to develop an engaging storytelling robot and to develop metrics for evaluating engagement. Ten children listened to an illustrated story told by a social robot during a science fair. The responses of the robot were adapted during the interaction based on the children’s engagement and touches of the pictures displayed by the robot on a tablet embedded in its torso. During the interaction the robot responded contingently to the child, but only when the robot invited the child to interact. We describe the robot architecture used to implement dialogic storytelling and evaluate the quality of human–robot interaction based on temporal (patterns of touch, touch duration and spatial (motions in the space surrounding the robot metrics. We introduce a novel visualization that emphasizes the temporal dynamics of the interaction and analyze the motions of the children in the space surrounding the robot. The study demonstrates that the interaction through invited contingent responses succeeded in engaging children, although the robot missed some opportunities for contingent interaction and the children had to adapt to the task. We conclude that (i the consideration of both temporal and spatial attributes is fundamental for establishing metrics to estimate levels of engagement in real-time, (ii metrics for engagement are sensitive to both the group and

Improving therapeutic outcomes in autism spectrum disorders: Enhancing social communication and sensory processing through the use of interactive robots.

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Sartorato, Felippe; Przybylowski, Leon; Sarko, Diana K

2017-07-01

For children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), social robots are increasingly utilized as therapeutic tools in order to enhance social skills and communication. Robots have been shown to generate a number of social and behavioral benefits in children with ASD including heightened engagement, increased attention, and decreased social anxiety. Although social robots appear to be effective social reinforcement tools in assistive therapies, the perceptual mechanism underlying these benefits remains unknown. To date, social robot studies have primarily relied on expertise in fields such as engineering and clinical psychology, with measures of social robot efficacy principally limited to qualitative observational assessments of children's interactions with robots. In this review, we examine a range of socially interactive robots that currently have the most widespread use as well as the utility of these robots and their therapeutic effects. In addition, given that social interactions rely on audiovisual communication, we discuss how enhanced sensory processing and integration of robotic social cues may underlie the perceptual and behavioral benefits that social robots confer. Although overall multisensory processing (including audiovisual integration) is impaired in individuals with ASD, social robot interactions may provide therapeutic benefits by allowing audiovisual social cues to be experienced through a simplified version of a human interaction. By applying systems neuroscience tools to identify, analyze, and extend the multisensory perceptual substrates that may underlie the therapeutic benefits of social robots, future studies have the potential to strengthen the clinical utility of social robots for individuals with ASD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty: minimum 1-year follow-up

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Patel, Vipul; Thaly, Rahul; Shah, Ketul

2007-02-01

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of robotic-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty. Laparoscopic pyeloplasty has been shown to have a success rate comparable to that of the open surgical approach. However, the steep learning curve has hindered its acceptance into mainstream urologic practice. The introduction of robotic assistance provides advantages that have the potential to facilitate precise dissection and intracorporeal suturing. Methods: A total of 50 patients underwent robotic-assisted laparoscopic dismembered pyeloplasty. A four-trocar technique was used. Most patients were discharged home on day 1, with stent removal at 3 weeks. Patency of the ureteropelvic junction was assessed in all patients with mercaptotriglycylglycine Lasix renograms at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, then every 6 months for 1 year, and then yearly. Results: Each patient underwent a successful procedure without open conversion or transfusion. The average estimated blood loss was 40 ml. The operative time averaged 122 minutes (range 60 to 330) overall. Crossing vessels were present in 30% of the patients and were preserved in all cases. The time for the anastomosis averaged 20 minutes (range 10 to 100). Intraoperatively, no complications occurred. Postoperatively, the average hospital stay was 1.1 days. The stents were removed at an average of 20 days (range 14 to 28) postoperatively. The average follow-up was 11.7 months; at the last follow-up visit, each patient was doing well. Of the 50 patients, 48 underwent one or more renograms, demonstrating stable renal function, improved drainage, and no evidence of recurrent obstruction. Conclusions: Robotic-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty is a feasible technique for ureteropelvic junction reconstruction. The procedure provides a minimally invasive alternative with good short-term results.

An Informationally Structured Room for Robotic Assistance

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Tokuo Tsuji

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The application of assistive technologies for elderly people is one of the most promising and interesting scenarios for intelligent technologies in the present and near future. Moreover, the improvement of the quality of life for the elderly is one of the first priorities in modern countries and societies. In this work, we present an informationally structured room that is aimed at supporting the daily life activities of elderly people. This room integrates different sensor modalities in a natural and non-invasive way inside the environment. The information gathered by the sensors is processed and sent to a centralized management system, which makes it available to a service robot assisting the people. One important restriction of our intelligent room is reducing as much as possible any interference with daily activities. Finally, this paper presents several experiments and situations using our intelligent environment in cooperation with our service robot.

Percutaneous Sacroiliac Screw Placement: A Prospective Randomized Comparison of Robot-assisted Navigation Procedures with a Conventional Technique

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Jun-Qiang Wang

2017-01-01

Conclusions: Accuracy of the robot-assisted technique was superior to that of the freehand technique. Robot-assisted navigation is safe for unstable posterior pelvic ring stabilization, especially in S1, but also in S2. SI screw insertion with robot-assisted navigation is clinically feasible.

Human Assisted Robotic Vehicle Studies - A conceptual end-to-end mission architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Lehner, B. A. E.; Mazzotta, D. G.; Teeney, L.; Spina, F.; Filosa, A.; Pou, A. Canals; Schlechten, J.; Campbell, S.; Soriano, P. López

2017-11-01

With current space exploration roadmaps indicating the Moon as a proving ground on the way to human exploration of Mars, it is clear that human-robotic partnerships will play a key role for successful future human space missions. This paper details a conceptual end-to-end architecture for an exploration mission in cis-lunar space with a focus on human-robot interactions, called Human Assisted Robotic Vehicle Studies (HARVeSt). HARVeSt will build on knowledge of plant growth in space gained from experiments on-board the ISS and test the first growth of plants on the Moon. A planned deep space habitat will be utilised as the base of operations for human-robotic elements of the mission. The mission will serve as a technology demonstrator not only for autonomous tele-operations in cis-lunar space but also for key enabling technologies for future human surface missions. The successful approach of the ISS will be built on in this mission with international cooperation. Mission assets such as a modular rover will allow for an extendable mission and to scout and prepare the area for the start of an international Moon Village.

Child, Robot and Educational Material : A Triadic Interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Davison, Daniel Patrick

The process in which a child and a robot work together to solve a learning task can be characterised as a triadic interaction. Interactions between the child and robot; the child and learning materials; and the robot and learning materials will each shape the perception and appreciation the child

Child, Robot and Educational Material: A Triadic Interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Davison, Daniel Patrick

The process in which a child and a robot work together to solve a learning task can be characterised as a triadic interaction. Interactions between the child and robot; the child and learning materials; and the robot and learning materials will each shape the perception and appreciation the child

Laparoscopic robot-assisted pancreas transplantation: first world experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Boggi, Ugo; Signori, Stefano; Vistoli, Fabio; D'Imporzano, Simone; Amorese, Gabriella; Consani, Giovanni; Guarracino, Fabio; Marchetti, Piero; Focosi, Daniele; Mosca, Franco

2012-01-27

Surgical complications are a major disincentive to pancreas transplantation, despite the undisputed benefits of restored insulin independence. The da Vinci surgical system, a computer-assisted electromechanical device, provides the unique opportunity to test whether laparoscopy can reduce the morbidity of pancreas transplantation. Pancreas transplantation was performed by robot-assisted laparoscopy in three patients. The first patient received a pancreas after kidney transplant, the second a simultaneous pancreas kidney transplantation, and the third a pancreas transplant alone. Operations were carried out through an 11-mm optic port, two 8-mm operative ports, and a 7-cm midline incision. The latter was used to introduce the grafts, enable vascular cross-clamping, and create exocrine drainage into the jejunum. The two solitary pancreas transplants required an operating time of 3 and 5 hr, respectively; the simultaneous pancreas kidney transplantation took 8 hr. Mean warm ischemia time of the pancreas graft was 34 min. All pancreatic transplants functioned immediately, and all recipients became insulin independent. The kidney graft, revascularized after 35 min of warm ischemia, also functioned immediately. No patient had complications during or after surgery. At the longer follow-up of 10, 8, and 6 months, respectively, all recipients are alive with normal graft function. We have shown the feasibility of laparoscopic robot-assisted solitary pancreas and simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplantation. If the safety and feasibility of this procedure can be confirmed by larger series, laparoscopic robot-assisted pancreas transplantation could become a new option for diabetic patients needing beta-cell replacement.

Robot-assisted gastroesophageal surgery: usefulness and limitations.

Science.gov (United States)

Diez Del Val, Ismael; Martinez Blazquez, Cándido; Loureiro Gonzalez, Carlos; Vitores Lopez, Jose Maria; Sierra Esteban, Valentin; Barrenetxea Asua, Julen; Del Hoyo Aretxabala, Izaskun; Perez de Villarreal, Patricia; Bilbao Axpe, Jose Esteban; Mendez Martin, Jaime Jesus

2014-06-01

Robot-assisted surgery overcomes some of the limitations of traditional laparoscopic surgery. We present our experience and lessons learned in two surgical units dedicated to gastro-esophageal surgery. From June 2009 to January 2013, we performed 130 robot-assisted gastroesophageal procedures, including Nissen fundoplication (29), paraesophageal hernia repair (18), redo for failed antireflux surgery (11), esophagectomy (19), subtotal (5) or wedge (4) gastrectomy, Heller myotomy for achalasia (22), gastric bypass for morbid obesity (12), thoracoscopic leiomyomectomy (4), Morgagni hernia repair (3), lower-third esophageal diverticulectomy (1) and two diagnostic procedures. There were 80 men and 50 women with a median age of 54 years (interquartile range: 46-65). Ten patients (7.7 %) had severe postoperative complications: eight after esophagectomy (three leaks-two cervical and one thoracic-managed conservatively), one stapler failure, one chylothorax, one case of gastric migration to the thorax, one case of biliary peritonitis, and one patient with a transient ventricular dyskinesia. One redo procedure needed reoperation because of port-site bleeding, and one patient died of pulmonary complications after a giant paraesophageal hernia repair; 30-day mortality was, therefore, 0.8 %. There were six elective and one forced conversions (hemorrhage), so total conversion was 5.4 %. Median length of stay was 4 days (IQ range 3-7). Robot-assisted gastroesophageal surgery is feasible and safe, and may be applied to most common procedures. It seems of particular value for Heller myotomy, large paraesophageal hernias, redo antireflux surgery, transhiatal dissection, and hand-sewn intrathoracic anastomosis.

Caregiver and social assistant robot for rehabilitation and coaching for the elderly.

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Pérez, P J; Garcia-Zapirain, B; Mendez-Zorrilla, A

2015-01-01

Socially assistive robotics (SAR) has been a major field of investigation during the last decade and, as it develops, the groups the technology can be applied to and all ways in which these can be assisted are rapidly increasing. The main objective is to design and develop a complete robotic agent, so that it performs physical and mental activities for elderly people to maintain their healthy life habits and, as a final result, improve their quality of life. LEGO Mindstorms NXT® robot's unique capacity for adaptability and engaging its users to develop coaching activities and assistive rehabilitation for the elderly. Such activities will aim to enhance healthy habits and provide training in physical and mental rehabilitation. The robot is attached to an iPod Touch that acts as its interface. The robot has been tested by a voluntary group of residents, also from that retirement home. Results in the variables of the questionnaire show scores above 4 points out of 5 for all the categories. Based on the tests, an easy to use Robot is prepared to deliver basic coaching for physical activities as proposed by the client, the staff of La Misericordia, who confirmed their satisfaction regarding this aspect.

Two years of experience with robot-assisted anti-reflux surgery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sanberg Jensen, Jonas; Kold Antonsen, Henning; Durup, Jesper

2017-01-01

Background and aims Robot-assisted anti-reflux surgery (RAAS) is an alternative to conventional laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery (CLAS). The purpose of this study was to evaluate initial Danish experiences with robot-assisted anti-reflux surgery compared to conventional laparoscopic anti-reflux...... significantly dependent on type of fundic wrap with reoperation of Nissen fundoplication being dysphagia and reoperation of Toupet being recurrent reflux (p = 0.008). There was no clearly determined learning curve. Conclusions RAAS was safe, feasible and with equal efficacy to CLAS. There were however...

Augmented Robotics Dialog System for Enhancing Human–Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Martín, Fernando; Castro-González, Aívaro; de Gorostiza Luengo, Francisco Javier Fernandez; Salichs, Miguel Ángel

2015-01-01

Augmented reality, augmented television and second screen are cutting edge technologies that provide end users extra and enhanced information related to certain events in real time. This enriched information helps users better understand such events, at the same time providing a more satisfactory experience. In the present paper, we apply this main idea to human–robot interaction (HRI), to how users and robots interchange information. The ultimate goal of this paper is to improve the quality of HRI, developing a new dialog manager system that incorporates enriched information from the semantic web. This work presents the augmented robotic dialog system (ARDS), which uses natural language understanding mechanisms to provide two features: (i) a non-grammar multimodal input (verbal and/or written) text; and (ii) a contextualization of the information conveyed in the interaction. This contextualization is achieved by information enrichment techniques that link the extracted information from the dialog with extra information about the world available in semantic knowledge bases. This enriched or contextualized information (information enrichment, semantic enhancement or contextualized information are used interchangeably in the rest of this paper) offers many possibilities in terms of HRI. For instance, it can enhance the robot's pro-activeness during a human–robot dialog (the enriched information can be used to propose new topics during the dialog, while ensuring a coherent interaction). Another possibility is to display additional multimedia content related to the enriched information on a visual device. This paper describes the ARDS and shows a proof of concept of its applications. PMID:26151202

Safe physical human robot interaction- past, present and future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pervez, Aslam; Ryu, Jeha

2008-01-01

When a robot physically interacts with a human user, the requirements should be drastically changed. The most important requirement is the safety of the human user in the sense that robot should not harm the human in any situation. During the last few years, research has been focused on various aspects of safe physical human robot interaction. This paper provides a review of the work on safe physical interaction of robotic systems sharing their workspace with human users (especially elderly people). Three distinct areas of research are identified: interaction safety assessment, interaction safety through design, and interaction safety through planning and control. The paper then highlights the current challenges and available technologies and points out future research directions for realization of a safe and dependable robotic system for human users

The relation between people's attitudes and anxiety towards robots in human-robot interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Graaf, M.M.A.; Ben Allouch, Soumaya

2013-01-01

This paper examines the relation between an interaction with a robot and peoples’ attitudes and emotion towards robots. In our study, participants have had an acquaintance talk with a social robot and both their general attitude and anxiety towards social robots were measured before and after the

Development of the robot system to assist CT-guided brain surgery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koyama, H.; Funakubo, H.; Komeda, T.; Uchida, T.; Takakura, K.

1999-01-01

The robot technology was introduced into the stereotactic neurosurgery for application to biopsy, blind surgery, and functional neurosurgery. The authors have developed a newly designed the robot system to assist CT-guided brain surgery, designed to allow a biopsy needle to reach the targget such as a cerebral tumor within a brain automatically on the basis of the X,Y, and Z coordinates obtained by CT scanner. In this paper we describe construction of the robot, the control of the robot by CT image, robot simulation, and investigated a phantom experiment using CT image. (author)

Predicting Functional Recovery in Chronic Stroke Rehabilitation Using Event-Related Desynchronization-Synchronization during Robot-Assisted Movement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Caimmi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Although rehabilitation robotics seems to be a promising therapy in the rehabilitation of the upper limb in stroke patients, consensus is still lacking on its additive effects. Therefore, there is a need for determining the possible success of robotic interventions on selected patients, which in turn determine the necessity for new investigating instruments supporting the treatment decision-making process and customization. The objective of the work presented in this preliminary study was to verify that fully robot assistance would not affect the physiological oscillatory cortical activity related to a functional movement in healthy subjects. Further, the clinical results following the robotic treatment of a chronic stroke patient, who positively reacted to the robotic intervention, were analyzed and discussed. First results show that there is no difference in EEG activation pattern between assisted and no-assisted movement in healthy subjects. Even more importantly, the patient’s pretreatment EEG activation pattern in no-assisted movement was completely altered, while it recovered to a quasi-physiological one in robot-assisted movement. The functional improvement following treatment was large. Using pretreatment EEG recording during robot-assisted movement might be a valid approach to assess the potential ability of the patient for recovering.

Interaction dynamics of multiple mobile robots with simple navigation strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, P. K. C.

1989-01-01

The global dynamic behavior of multiple interacting autonomous mobile robots with simple navigation strategies is studied. Here, the effective spatial domain of each robot is taken to be a closed ball about its mass center. It is assumed that each robot has a specified cone of visibility such that interaction with other robots takes place only when they enter its visibility cone. Based on a particle model for the robots, various simple homing and collision-avoidance navigation strategies are derived. Then, an analysis of the dynamical behavior of the interacting robots in unbounded spatial domains is made. The article concludes with the results of computer simulations studies of two or more interacting robots.

[Implementation of a robotic video-assisted thoracic surgical program].

Science.gov (United States)

Baste, J-M; Riviera, C; Nouhaud, F-X; Rinieri, P; Melki, J; Peillon, C

2016-03-01

Recent publications from North America have shown the benefits of robot-assisted thoracic surgery. We report here the process of setting up such a program in a French university centre and early results in a unit with an average treatment volume. Retrospective review of a single institution database. The program was launched after a 6-month preparation period. From January 2012 to January 2013, totally endoscopic, full robot-assisted procedures were performed on 30 patients (17 males). Median age was 54 [Q1-Q3, 48-63] years and ASA score 2 [1,2]. Operative procedures included thymectomy (9 ; 30%), lobectomy with nodes resection (11 ; 38%), segmentectomy (4 ; 14%), lymphadenectomy (3 ; 10%), Bronchogenic cyst (2, 5%) and posterior mediastinal mass resection (1 ; 3%). No conversion was required. Median blood loss was 50mL [10-100]. Median operating time was 135 min (105-165) including 30 min [20-40] for docking, 90min for robot-assisted operating [70-120] and 15 min [10-15] for lesion extraction. CO2 insufflation was used in 28 cases (93%). Hospital stay was 4 days [4-6] with 6 minor complications (20%) (Grade 1 according to the Clavien-Dindo classification). After a median 4 months follow-up [2-7], all patients were alive and demonstrated a good quality of life. This series suggests that full robotic thoracic procedures are safe and effective treatment for various pathologies, with low morbidity and without a significant learning curve, even in a lower volume centre. This technology should accompany the development of minimally invasive thoracic surgery. The importance of robotic training should be emphasized to optimize procedures and costs. Copyright © 2015 SPLF. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Social Intelligence for a Robot Engaging People in Cognitive Training Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeanie Chan

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Current research supports the use of cognitive training interventions to improve the brain functioning of both adults and children. Our work focuses on exploring the potential use of robot assistants to allow for these interventions to become more accessible. Namely, we aim to develop an intelligent, socially assistive robot that can engage individuals in person-centred cognitively stimulating activities. In this paper, we present the design of a novel control architecture for the robot Brian 2.0, which enables the robot to be a social motivator by providing assistance, encouragement and celebration during an activity. A hierarchical reinforcement learning approach is used in the architecture to allow the robot to: 1 learn appropriate assistive behaviours based on the structure of the activity, and 2 personalize an interaction based on user states. Experiments show that the control architecture is effective in determining the robot's optimal assistive behaviours during a memory game interaction.

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery: recent advances in urology.

Science.gov (United States)

Autorino, Riccardo; Zargar, Homayoun; Kaouk, Jihad H

2014-10-01

The aim of the present review is to summarize recent developments in the field of urologic robotic surgery. A nonsystematic literature review was performed to retrieve publications related to robotic surgery in urology and evidence-based critical analysis was conducted by focusing on the literature of the past 5 years. The use of the da Vinci Surgical System, a robotic surgical system, has been implemented for the entire spectrum of extirpative and reconstructive laparoscopic kidney procedures. The robotic approach can be applied for a range of adrenal indications as well as for ureteral diseases, including benign and malignant conditions affecting the proximal, mid, and distal ureter. Current evidence suggests that robotic prostatectomy is associated with less blood loss compared with the open surgery. Besides prostate cancer, robotics has been used for simple prostatectomy in patients with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia. Recent studies suggest that minimally invasive radical cystectomy provides encouraging oncologic outcomes mirroring those reported for open surgery. In recent years, the evolution of robotic surgery has enabled urologic surgeons to perform urinary diversions intracorporeally. Robotic vasectomy reversal and several other robotic andrological applications are being explored. In summary, robotic-assisted surgery is an emerging and safe technology for most urologic operations. The acceptance of robotic prostatectomy during the past decade has paved the way for urologists to explore the entire spectrum of extirpative and reconstructive urologic procedures. Cost remains a significant issue that could be solved by wider dissemination of the technology. Copyright © 2014 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Human-Robot Interaction Directed Research Project

Science.gov (United States)

Rochlis, Jennifer; Ezer, Neta; Sandor, Aniko

2011-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is about understanding and shaping the interactions between humans and robots (Goodrich & Schultz, 2007). It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces and command modalities affect the human s ability to perform tasks accurately, efficiently, and effectively (Crandall, Goodrich, Olsen Jr., & Nielsen, 2005) It is also critical to evaluate the effects of human-robot interfaces and command modalities on operator mental workload (Sheridan, 1992) and situation awareness (Endsley, Bolt , & Jones, 2003). By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed that support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for design. Because the factors associated with interfaces and command modalities in HRI are too numerous to address in 3 years of research, the proposed research concentrates on three manageable areas applicable to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) robot systems. These topic areas emerged from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 work that included extensive literature reviews and observations of NASA systems. The three topic areas are: 1) video overlays, 2) camera views, and 3) command modalities. Each area is described in detail below, along with relevance to existing NASA human-robot systems. In addition to studies in these three topic areas, a workshop is proposed for FY12. The workshop will bring together experts in human-robot interaction and robotics to discuss the state of the practice as applicable to research in space robotics. Studies proposed in the area of video overlays consider two factors in the implementation of augmented reality (AR) for operator displays during teleoperation. The first of these factors is the type of navigational guidance provided by AR symbology. In the proposed

Pantomimic gestures for human-robot interaction

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Burke, Michael G

2015-10-01

Full Text Available -1 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS 1 Pantomimic Gestures for Human-Robot Interaction Michael Burke, Student Member, IEEE, and Joan Lasenby Abstract This work introduces a pantomimic gesture interface, which classifies human hand gestures using...

Electroencephalography (EEG) Based Control in Assistive Mobile Robots: A Review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krishnan, N Murali; Mariappan, Muralindran; Muthukaruppan, Karthigayan; Hijazi, Mohd Hanafi Ahmad; Kitt, Wong Wei

2016-01-01

Recently, EEG based control in assistive robot usage has been gradually increasing in the area of biomedical field for giving quality and stress free life for disabled and elderly people. This study reviews the deployment of EGG based control in assistive robots, especially for those who in need and neurologically disabled. The main objective of this paper is to describe the methods used for (i) EEG data acquisition and signal preprocessing, (ii) feature extraction and (iii) signal classification methods. Besides that, this study presents the specific research challenges in the designing of these control systems and future research directions. (paper)

Robotic-assisted partial Nephrectomy: initial experience in South America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustavo C. Lemos

2011-08-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE:To report the initial outcomes of robotic-assisted partial nephrectomy in a tertiary center in South America. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From 11/2008 to 12/2009, a total of 16 transperitoneal robotic-assisted partial nephrectomies were performed in 15 patients to treat 18 kidney tumors. One patient with bilateral tumor had two procedures, while two patients with two synchronous unilateral tumors had a single operation to remove them. Eleven (73% patients were male and the right kidney was affected in 7 (46% patients. The median patient age and tumor size were 57 years old and 30 mm, respectively. Five (28% tumors were hilar and/or centrally located. RESULTS: The median operative time, warm ischemia time and estimated blood loss was 140 min, 27 min and 120 mL, respectively. Blood transfusion was required in one patient with bilateral tumor, and one additional pyelolithotomy was performed due to a 15mm stone located in the renal pelvis. The histopathology analysis showed 15 (83% malignant tumors, which 10 (67% were clear cell carcinoma. The median hospital stay was 72 hrs and no major complication was observed. CONCLUSION: Robotic-assisted partial nephrectomy is safe and represents a valuable option to perform minimally invasive nephron-sparing surgery.

Gait performance and foot pressure distribution during wearable robot-assisted gait in elderly adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Su-Hyun; Lee, Hwang-Jae; Chang, Won Hyuk; Choi, Byung-Ok; Lee, Jusuk; Kim, Jeonghun; Ryu, Gyu-Ha; Kim, Yun-Hee

2017-11-28

A robotic exoskeleton device is an intelligent system designed to improve gait performance and quality of life for the wearer. Robotic technology has developed rapidly in recent years, and several robot-assisted gait devices were developed to enhance gait function and activities of daily living in elderly adults and patients with gait disorders. In this study, we investigated the effects of the Gait-enhancing Mechatronic System (GEMS), a new wearable robotic hip-assist device developed by Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd., Korea, on gait performance and foot pressure distribution in elderly adults. Thirty elderly adults who had no neurological or musculoskeletal abnormalities affecting gait participated in this study. A three-dimensional (3D) motion capture system, surface electromyography and the F-Scan system were used to collect data on spatiotemporal gait parameters, muscle activity and foot pressure distribution under three conditions: free gait without robot assistance (FG), robot-assisted gait with zero torque (RAG-Z) and robot-assisted gait (RAG). We found increased gait speed, cadence, stride length and single support time in the RAG condition. Reduced rectus femoris and medial gastrocnemius muscle activity throughout the terminal stance phase and reduced effort of the medial gastrocnemius muscle throughout the pre-swing phase were also observed in the RAG condition. In addition, walking with the assistance of GEMS resulted in a significant increase in foot pressure distribution, specifically in maximum force and peak pressure of the total foot, medial masks, anterior masks and posterior masks. The results of the present study reveal that GEMS may present an alternative way of restoring age-related changes in gait such as gait instability with muscle weakness, reduced step force and lower foot pressure in elderly adults. In addition, GEMS improved gait performance by improving push-off power and walking speed and reducing muscle activity in the lower

Instructional Design Using an In-House Built Teaching Assistant Robot to Enhance Elementary School English-as-a-Foreign-Language Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Wen-Chi Vivian; Wang, Rong-Jyue; Chen, Nian-Shing

2015-01-01

This paper presents a design for a cutting-edge English program in which elementary school learners of English as a foreign language in Taiwan had lively interactions with a teaching assistant robot. Three dimensions involved in the design included (1) a pleasant and interactive classroom environment as the learning context, (2) a teaching…

End-point impedance measurements across dominant and nondominant hands and robotic assistance with directional damping.

Science.gov (United States)

Erden, Mustafa Suphi; Billard, Aude

2015-06-01

The goal of this paper is to perform end-point impedance measurements across dominant and nondominant hands while doing airbrush painting and to use the results for developing a robotic assistance scheme. We study airbrush painting because it resembles in many ways manual welding, a standard industrial task. The experiments are performed with the 7 degrees of freedom KUKA lightweight robot arm. The robot is controlled in admittance using a force sensor attached at the end-point, so as to act as a free-mass and be passively guided by the human. For impedance measurements, a set of nine subjects perform 12 repetitions of airbrush painting, drawing a straight-line on a cartoon horizontally placed on a table, while passively moving the airbrush mounted on the robot's end-point. We measure hand impedance during the painting task by generating sudden and brief external forces with the robot. The results show that on average the dominant hand displays larger impedance than the nondominant in the directions perpendicular to the painting line. We find the most significant difference in the damping values in these directions. Based on this observation, we develop a "directional damping" scheme for robotic assistance and conduct a pilot study with 12 subjects to contrast airbrush painting with and without robotic assistance. Results show significant improvement in precision with both dominant and nondominant hands when using robotic assistance.

Robotic Assisted Transanal Polypectomies: Is There Any Indication?

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez Ruiz, Marcos; Cagigas Fernández, Carmen; Alonso Martín, Joaquín; Cristobal Poch, Lidia; Manuel Palazuelos, Carlos; Barredo Cañibano, Francisco Javier; Gómez Fleitas, Manuel; Castillo Diego, Julio

2017-12-01

Robotic assisted transanal polipectomy may have advantages compared with the conventional transanal minimally invasive surgery technique. We evaluate the safety, feasibility and advantages of this technique. Between February 2014 and October 2015, 9patients underwent robotic transanal polypectomy. We performed a retrospective study in which we analyse prospectively collected data regarding patient and tumor characteristics, perioperative outcomes, pathological report, morbidity and mortality. A total of 5 male and 4 female patients underwent robotic TAMIS. Lesions were 6,22cm from the anal verge. Mean size was 15,8cm 2 . All procedures were performed in the lithotomy position. Closure of the defect was performed in all cases. Mean blood loss was 39,8ml. Mean operative time was 71,9min. No severe postoperative complications or readmissions occured. Median hospital stay was 2,5 days. Robotic TAMIS is useful to treat complex rectal lesions. Our transanal platform allowed a wider range of movements of the robotic arms and to perform all procedures in the lithotomy position. Copyright © 2017 AEC. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Robotic assistants in personal care: A scoping review.

Science.gov (United States)

Bilyea, A; Seth, N; Nesathurai, S; Abdullah, H A

2017-11-01

The aim of this study is to present an overview of the technological advances in the field of robotics developed for assistance with activities of daily living (ADL), and to present areas where further research is required. Four databases were searched for articles presenting either a novel design of one of these personal care robotic system or trial results relating to these systems. Articles presenting nine different robotic personal care systems were examined, six of which had been developed after 2005. These six also all have publications relating to their trials. In the majority of trials, patient independence was improved with operation of the robotic device for a specific subset of ADL. A map of the current state of the field of personal care robotics is presented in this study. Areas requiring further research include improving feedback and awareness, as well as refining control methods and pre-programmed behaviors. Developing an affordable, easy to use system would help fill the current gap in the commercial market. Copyright © 2017 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design and Implementation of an Assistive Controller for Rehabilitation Robotic Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duygun Erol

2007-09-01

Full Text Available The goal of our research is to develop an assistive controller for robotic rehabilitation of the upper extremity after stroke. The controller is used to provide robotic assistance to participants to help them to track a desired motion trajectory required for the rehabilitation task in an accurate and concentrated manner. This rehabilitation task is designed to ensure concentrated repetitive motion that requires cognitive processing. Experimental results on unimpaired participants are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed controller.

Designing Emotionally Expressive Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tsiourti, Christiana; Weiss, Astrid; Wac, Katarzyna

2017-01-01

Socially assistive agents, be it virtual avatars or robots, need to engage in social interactions with humans and express their internal emotional states, goals, and desires. In this work, we conducted a comparative study to investigate how humans perceive emotional cues expressed by humanoid...... robots through five communication modalities (face, head, body, voice, locomotion) and examined whether the degree of a robot's human-like embodiment affects this perception. In an online survey, we asked people to identify emotions communicated by Pepper -a highly human-like robot and Hobbit – a robot...... for robots....

Development and validation of a composite scoring system for robot-assisted surgical training--the Robotic Skills Assessment Score.

Science.gov (United States)

Chowriappa, Ashirwad J; Shi, Yi; Raza, Syed Johar; Ahmed, Kamran; Stegemann, Andrew; Wilding, Gregory; Kaouk, Jihad; Peabody, James O; Menon, Mani; Hassett, James M; Kesavadas, Thenkurussi; Guru, Khurshid A

2013-12-01

A standardized scoring system does not exist in virtual reality-based assessment metrics to describe safe and crucial surgical skills in robot-assisted surgery. This study aims to develop an assessment score along with its construct validation. All subjects performed key tasks on previously validated Fundamental Skills of Robotic Surgery curriculum, which were recorded, and metrics were stored. After an expert consensus for the purpose of content validation (Delphi), critical safety determining procedural steps were identified from the Fundamental Skills of Robotic Surgery curriculum and a hierarchical task decomposition of multiple parameters using a variety of metrics was used to develop Robotic Skills Assessment Score (RSA-Score). Robotic Skills Assessment mainly focuses on safety in operative field, critical error, economy, bimanual dexterity, and time. Following, the RSA-Score was further evaluated for construct validation and feasibility. Spearman correlation tests performed between tasks using the RSA-Scores indicate no cross correlation. Wilcoxon rank sum tests were performed between the two groups. The proposed RSA-Score was evaluated on non-robotic surgeons (n = 15) and on expert-robotic surgeons (n = 12). The expert group demonstrated significantly better performance on all four tasks in comparison to the novice group. Validation of the RSA-Score in this study was carried out on the Robotic Surgical Simulator. The RSA-Score is a valid scoring system that could be incorporated in any virtual reality-based surgical simulator to achieve standardized assessment of fundamental surgical tents during robot-assisted surgery. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Avoiding Local Optima with Interactive Evolutionary Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-09

the top of a flight of stairs selects for climbing ; suspending the robot and the target object above the ground and creating rungs between the two will...REPORT Avoiding Local Optimawith Interactive Evolutionary Robotics 14. ABSTRACT 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: The main bottleneck in evolutionary... robotics has traditionally been the time required to evolve robot controllers. However with the continued acceleration in computational resources, the

Impact of metabolic syndrome on early recovery of continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Nishikawa, Masatomo; Watanabe, Hiromitsu; Kurahashi, Toshifumi

2017-09-01

To evaluate the impact of metabolic syndrome on the early recovery of urinary continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. The present study included a total of 302 consecutive Japanese patients with clinically localized prostate cancer who underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. In this study, postoperative urinary continence was defined as no leak or the use of a security pad. The continence status was assessed by interviews before and 1 and 3 months after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Metabolic syndrome was defined as follows: body mass index ≥25 kg/m 2 and two or more of the following: hypertension, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia. The effect of the presence of metabolic syndrome on the continence status of these patients was retrospectively examined. A total of 116 (38.4%) and 203 (67.2%) of the 302 patients were continent at 1 and 3 months after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, respectively. A total of 31 (10.3%) patients were judged to have metabolic syndrome. Despite the operative time being longer in patients with metabolic syndrome, no significant differences were observed in the remaining preoperative, intraoperative or postoperative variables between patients with or without metabolic syndrome. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, metabolic syndrome and the duration of hospitalization were significantly correlated with the 1-month continence status. Similarly, metabolic syndrome and estimated blood loss during surgery were independent predictors of continence rates at 3 months after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. These findings suggest that the presence of metabolic syndrome could have a significant impact on the early recovery of urinary continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. © 2017 The Japanese Urological Association.

Exploring multimodal robotic interaction through storytelling for aphasics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mubin, O.; Al Mahmud, A.; Abuelma'atti, O.; England, D.

2008-01-01

In this poster, we propose the design of a multimodal robotic interaction mechanism that is intended to be used by Aphasics for storytelling. Through limited physical interaction, mild to moderate aphasic people can interact with a robot that may help them to be more active in their day to day

Affect in Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Werry, I., Rae, J., Dickerson, P., Stribling, P., & Ogden, B. (2002). Robotic Playmates: Analysing Interactive Competencies of Children with Autism ...WE-4RII. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Edmonton, Canada. 35. Moravec, H. (1988). Mind Children : The Future of...and if so when and where? • What approaches, theories , representations, and experimental methods inform affective HRI research? Report Documentation

Robot assisted navigated drilling for percutaneous pedicle screw placement: A preliminary animal study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongwei Wang

2015-01-01

Conclusions: The preliminary study supports the view that computer assisted pedicle screw fixation using spinal robot is feasible and the robot can decrease the intraoperative fluoroscopy time during the minimally invasive pedicle screw fixation surgery. As spine robotic surgery is still in its infancy, further research in this field is worthwhile especially the accuracy of spine robot system should be improved.

Outcomes of infants undergoing robot-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty compared to open repair.

Science.gov (United States)

Dangle, Pankaj P; Kearns, James; Anderson, Blake; Gundeti, Mohan S

2013-12-01

Robotic surgery has evolved from simple extirpative surgery to complex reconstructions even in infants. Data are lacking comparing surgical and direct costs to open approaches. We describe the feasibility, salient tips and outcomes of robot-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty compared to an open approach. We evaluated patients undergoing open pyeloplasty or robot-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty. Ten patients in each group met inclusion criteria. Mean patient age was 3.31 months in the open group and 7.3 months in the robotic group (p=0.02). Postoperative outcomes including length of stay (2.2 vs 2.1 days), estimated blood loss (6.5 vs 7.6 ml), days to regular diet (1 vs 1.1) and days to Foley catheter removal (1.3 vs 1.3) were similar between the open and robotic groups. Total operating time (199 vs 242 minutes) was significantly longer in the robotic group. Postoperative improvement in hydronephrosis was identical in both groups. Direct costs, excluding amortization, robotic cost, maintenance and depreciation, were $4,410 in the open group and $4,979 in the robotic group (p=0.10). In our preliminary experience robotic pyeloplasty in infants is feasible and safe. The immediate outcomes are similar to those of an open approach. The robotic technique in infants currently has the benefits of improved esthetic appearance, improved pain control and similar direct costs compared to the traditional open approach. Copyright © 2013 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of Robot Facial Characteristics and Gender in Persuasive Human-Robot Interaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aimi S. Ghazali

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The growing interest in social robotics makes it relevant to examine the potential of robots as persuasive agents and, more specifically, to examine how robot characteristics influence the way people experience such interactions and comply with the persuasive attempts by robots. The purpose of this research is to identify how the (ostensible gender and the facial characteristics of a robot influence the extent to which people trust it and the psychological reactance they experience from its persuasive attempts. This paper reports a laboratory study where SociBot™, a robot capable of displaying different faces and dynamic social cues, delivered persuasive messages to participants while playing a game. In-game choice behavior was logged, and trust and reactance toward the advisor were measured using questionnaires. Results show that a robotic advisor with upturned eyebrows and lips (features that people tend to trust more in humans is more persuasive, evokes more trust, and less psychological reactance compared to one displaying eyebrows pointing down and lips curled downwards at the edges (facial characteristics typically not trusted in humans. Gender of the robot did not affect trust, but participants experienced higher psychological reactance when interacting with a robot of the opposite gender. Remarkably, mediation analysis showed that liking of the robot fully mediates the influence of facial characteristics on trusting beliefs and psychological reactance. Also, psychological reactance was a strong and reliable predictor of trusting beliefs but not of trusting behavior. These results suggest robots that are intended to influence human behavior should be designed to have facial characteristics we trust in humans and could be personalized to have the same gender as the user. Furthermore, personalization and adaptation techniques designed to make people like the robot more may help ensure they will also trust the robot.

Advancing the Strategic Messages Affecting Robot Trust Effect: The Dynamic of User- and Robot-Generated Content on Human-Robot Trust and Interaction Outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Yuhua Jake; Lee, Seungcheol Austin

2016-09-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) will soon transform and shift the communication landscape such that people exchange messages with robots. However, successful HRI requires people to trust robots, and, in turn, the trust affects the interaction. Although prior research has examined the determinants of human-robot trust (HRT) during HRI, no research has examined the messages that people received before interacting with robots and their effect on HRT. We conceptualize these messages as SMART (Strategic Messages Affecting Robot Trust). Moreover, we posit that SMART can ultimately affect actual HRI outcomes (i.e., robot evaluations, robot credibility, participant mood) by affording the persuasive influences from user-generated content (UGC) on participatory Web sites. In Study 1, participants were assigned to one of two conditions (UGC/control) in an original experiment of HRT. Compared with the control (descriptive information only), results showed that UGC moderated the correlation between HRT and interaction outcomes in a positive direction (average Δr = +0.39) for robots as media and robots as tools. In Study 2, we explored the effect of robot-generated content but did not find similar moderation effects. These findings point to an important empirical potential to employ SMART in future robot deployment.

Toward understanding social cues and signals in human-robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Fiore, Stephen M; Wiltshire, Travis J; Lobato, Emilio J C; Jentsch, Florian G; Huang, Wesley H; Axelrod, Benjamin

2013-01-01

As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human-robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot Ava(TM) mobile robotics platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot's proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot's social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot's gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot's mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals.

Comparison of precision and speed in laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgical task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Zihni, Ahmed; Gerull, William D; Cavallo, Jaime A; Ge, Tianjia; Ray, Shuddhadeb; Chiu, Jason; Brunt, L Michael; Awad, Michael M

2018-03-01

Robotic platforms have the potential advantage of providing additional dexterity and precision to surgeons while performing complex laparoscopic tasks, especially for those in training. Few quantitative evaluations of surgical task performance comparing laparoscopic and robotic platforms among surgeons of varying experience levels have been done. We compared measures of quality and efficiency of Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery task performance on these platforms in novices and experienced laparoscopic and robotic surgeons. Fourteen novices, 12 expert laparoscopic surgeons (>100 laparoscopic procedures performed, no robotics experience), and five expert robotic surgeons (>25 robotic procedures performed) performed three Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery tasks on both laparoscopic and robotic platforms: peg transfer (PT), pattern cutting (PC), and intracorporeal suturing. All tasks were repeated three times by each subject on each platform in a randomized order. Mean completion times and mean errors per trial (EPT) were calculated for each task on both platforms. Results were compared using Student's t-test (P task performance was slower on the robotic platform compared with laparoscopy. In comparisons of expert laparoscopists performing tasks on the laparoscopic platform and expert robotic surgeons performing tasks on the robotic platform, expert robotic surgeons demonstrated fewer errors during the PC task (P = 0.009). Robotic assistance provided a reduction in errors at all experience levels for some laparoscopic tasks, but no benefit in the speed of task performance. Robotic assistance may provide some benefit in precision of surgical task performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Robotic assistants for universal access

OpenAIRE

Keates, Simeon; Kyberd, Peter J.

2017-01-01

Much research is now focusing on how technology is moving away from the traditional computer to a range of smart devices in smart environments, the so-called Internet of Things. With this increase in computing power and decrease in form factor, we are approaching the possibility of a new generation of robotic assistants able to perform a range of tasks and activities to support all kinds of users. However, history shows that unless care is taken early in the design process, the users who may ...

Feeding assistive robotics, socio-technological imaginaries and care

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nickelsen, Niels Christian Mossfeldt

The media and political/managerial levels focus on the opportunities to re-perform Denmark through digitization. Feeding assistive robotics is a welfare technology, relevant to citizens with low or no function in their arms. Despite national dissemination strategies, it proves difficult to recruit...

A taxonomy for user-healthcare robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Bzura, Conrad; Im, Hosung; Liu, Tammy; Malehorn, Kevin; Padir, Taskin; Tulu, Bengisu

2012-01-01

This paper evaluates existing taxonomies aimed at characterizing the interaction between robots and their users and modifies them for health care applications. The modifications are based on existing robot technologies and user acceptance of robotics. Characterization of the user, or in this case the patient, is a primary focus of the paper, as they present a unique new role as robot users. While therapeutic and monitoring-related applications for robots are still relatively uncommon, we believe they will begin to grow and thus it is important that the spurring relationship between robot and patient is well understood.

Admittance Control for Robot Assisted Retinal Vein Micro-Cannulation under Human-Robot Collaborative Mode.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, He; Gonenc, Berk; Iordachita, Iulian

2017-10-01

Retinal vein occlusion is one of the most common retinovascular diseases. Retinal vein cannulation is a potentially effective treatment method for this condition that currently lies, however, at the limits of human capabilities. In this work, the aim is to use robotic systems and advanced instrumentation to alleviate these challenges, and assist the procedure via a human-robot collaborative mode based on our earlier work on the Steady-Hand Eye Robot and force-sensing instruments. An admittance control method is employed to stabilize the cannula relative to the vein and maintain it inside the lumen during the injection process. A pre-stress strategy is used to prevent the tip of microneedle from getting out of vein in in prolonged infusions, and the performance is verified through simulations.

Robot-assisted gait training for stroke patients: current state of the art and perspectives of robotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morone G

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Giovanni Morone,1,2 Stefano Paolucci,1,2 Andrea Cherubini,3 Domenico De Angelis,1 Vincenzo Venturiero,1 Paola Coiro,1 Marco Iosa1,2 1Private Inpatient Unit, 2Clinical Laboratory of Experimental Neurorehabilitation, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy; 3Department of Robotics, LIRMM UM-CNRS, Montpellier, France Abstract: In this review, we give a brief outline of robot-mediated gait training for stroke patients, as an important emerging field in rehabilitation. Technological innovations are allowing rehabilitation to move toward more integrated processes, with improved efficiency and less long-term impairments. In particular, robot-mediated neurorehabilitation is a rapidly advancing field, which uses robotic systems to define new methods for treating neurological injuries, especially stroke. The use of robots in gait training can enhance rehabilitation, but it needs to be used according to well-defined neuroscientific principles. The field of robot-mediated neurorehabilitation brings challenges to both bioengineering and clinical practice. This article reviews the state of the art (including commercially available systems and perspectives of robotics in poststroke rehabilitation for walking recovery. A critical revision, including the problems at stake regarding robotic clinical use, is also presented. Keywords: exoskeleton, neurorehabilitation, robot-assisted walking training, wearable robot, activities of daily living, motor learning, plasticity

Robotic-Assisted Versus Manual Prostatic Arterial Embolization for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: A Comparative Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bagla, Sandeep, E-mail: sandeep.bagla@gmail.com [Vascular Institute of Virginia, LLC (United States); Smirniotopoulos, John [New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center (United States); Orlando, Julie C.; Piechowiak, Rachel [Vascular Institute of Virginia, LLC (United States)

2017-03-15

PurposeProstatic artery embolization (PAE) is a safe and efficacious procedure for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), though is technically challenging. We present our experience of technical and clinical outcomes of robotic and manual PAE in patients with BPH.Materials and MethodsIRB-approved retrospective study of 40 consecutive patients 49–81 years old with moderate or severe grade BPH from May 2014 to July 2015: 20 robotic-assisted PAE (group 1), 20 manual PAE (group 2). Robotic-assisted PAE was performed using the Magellan Robotic System. American Urological Association (AUA-SI) score, cost, technical and clinical success, radiation dose, fluoroscopy, and procedure time were reviewed. Statistical analysis was performed within and between each group using paired t test and one-way analysis of variance respectively, at 1 and 3 months.ResultsNo significant baseline differences in age and AUA-SI between groups. Technical success was 100% (group 1) and 95% (group 2). One unsuccessful subject from group 2 returned for a successful embolization using robotic assistance. Fluoroscopy and procedural times were similar between groups, with a non-significant lower patient radiation dose in group 1 (30,632.8 mGy/cm{sup 2} vs 35,890.9, p = 0.269). Disposable cost was significantly different between groups with the robotic-assisted PAE incurring a higher cost (group 1 $4530.2; group 2 $1588.5, p < 0.0001). Clinical improvement was significant in both arms at 3 months: group 1 mean change in AUA-SI of 8.3 (p = 0.006), group 2: 9.6 (p < 0.0001). No minor or major complications occurred.ConclusionsRobotic-assisted PAE offers technical success comparable to manual PAE, with similar clinical improvement with an increased cost.

Robotic-Assisted Versus Manual Prostatic Arterial Embolization for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: A Comparative Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bagla, Sandeep; Smirniotopoulos, John; Orlando, Julie C.; Piechowiak, Rachel

2017-01-01

PurposeProstatic artery embolization (PAE) is a safe and efficacious procedure for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), though is technically challenging. We present our experience of technical and clinical outcomes of robotic and manual PAE in patients with BPH.Materials and MethodsIRB-approved retrospective study of 40 consecutive patients 49–81 years old with moderate or severe grade BPH from May 2014 to July 2015: 20 robotic-assisted PAE (group 1), 20 manual PAE (group 2). Robotic-assisted PAE was performed using the Magellan Robotic System. American Urological Association (AUA-SI) score, cost, technical and clinical success, radiation dose, fluoroscopy, and procedure time were reviewed. Statistical analysis was performed within and between each group using paired t test and one-way analysis of variance respectively, at 1 and 3 months.ResultsNo significant baseline differences in age and AUA-SI between groups. Technical success was 100% (group 1) and 95% (group 2). One unsuccessful subject from group 2 returned for a successful embolization using robotic assistance. Fluoroscopy and procedural times were similar between groups, with a non-significant lower patient radiation dose in group 1 (30,632.8 mGy/cm"2 vs 35,890.9, p = 0.269). Disposable cost was significantly different between groups with the robotic-assisted PAE incurring a higher cost (group 1 $4530.2; group 2 $1588.5, p < 0.0001). Clinical improvement was significant in both arms at 3 months: group 1 mean change in AUA-SI of 8.3 (p = 0.006), group 2: 9.6 (p < 0.0001). No minor or major complications occurred.ConclusionsRobotic-assisted PAE offers technical success comparable to manual PAE, with similar clinical improvement with an increased cost.

Evaluating the effect of three-dimensional visualization on force application and performance time during robotics-assisted mitral valve repair.

Science.gov (United States)

Currie, Maria E; Trejos, Ana Luisa; Rayman, Reiza; Chu, Michael W A; Patel, Rajni; Peters, Terry; Kiaii, Bob B

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of three-dimensional (3D) binocular, stereoscopic, and two-dimensional (2D) monocular visualization on robotics-assisted mitral valve annuloplasty versus conventional techniques in an ex vivo animal model. In addition, we sought to determine whether these effects were consistent between novices and experts in robotics-assisted cardiac surgery. A cardiac surgery test-bed was constructed to measure forces applied during mitral valve annuloplasty. Sutures were passed through the porcine mitral valve annulus by the participants with different levels of experience in robotics-assisted surgery and tied in place using both robotics-assisted and conventional surgery techniques. The mean time for both the experts and the novices using 3D visualization was significantly less than that required using 2D vision (P robotic system with either 2D or 3D vision (P robotics-assisted mitral valve annuloplasty than during conventional open mitral valve annuloplasty. This finding suggests that 3D visualization does not fully compensate for the absence of haptic feedback in robotics-assisted cardiac surgery.

Costs of Robotic-Assisted Versus Traditional Laparoscopy in Endometrial Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Vuorinen, Riikka-Liisa K; Mäenpää, Minna M; Nieminen, Kari; Tomás, Eija I; Luukkaala, Tiina H; Auvinen, Anssi; Mäenpää, Johanna U

2017-10-01

The purpose of this study was to compare the costs of traditional laparoscopy and robotic-assisted laparoscopy in the treatment of endometrial cancer. A total of 101 patients with endometrial cancer were randomized to the study and operated on starting from 2010 until 2013, at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland. Costs were calculated based on internal accounting, hospital database, and purchase prices and were compared using intention-to-treat analysis. Main outcome measures were item costs and total costs related to the operation, including a 6-month postoperative follow-up. The total costs including late complications were 2160 &OV0556; higher in the robotic group (median for traditional 5823 &OV0556;, vs robot median 7983 &OV0556;, P costs for instruments and equipment as well as to more expensive operating room and postanesthesia care unit time. Traditional laparoscopy involved higher costs for operation personnel, general costs, medication used in the operation, and surgeon, although these costs were not substantial. There was no significant difference in in-patient stay, laboratory, radiology, blood products, or costs related to complications. According to this study, robotic-assisted laparoscopy is 37% more expensive than traditional laparoscopy in the treatment of endometrial cancer. The cost difference is mainly explained by amortization of the robot and its instrumentation.

Movement coordination in applied human-human and human-robot interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schubö, Anna; Vesper, Cordula; Wiesbeck, Mathey

2007-01-01

and describing human-human interaction in terms of goal-oriented movement coordination is considered an important and necessary step for designing and describing human-robot interaction. In the present scenario, trajectories of hand and finger movements were recorded while two human participants performed......The present paper describes a scenario for examining mechanisms of movement coordination in humans and robots. It is assumed that coordination can best be achieved when behavioral rules that shape movement execution in humans are also considered for human-robot interaction. Investigating...... coordination were affected. Implications for human-robot interaction are discussed....

Master-slave robotic system for needle indentation and insertion.

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Jaehyun; Zhong, Yongmin; Gu, Chengfan

2017-12-01

Bilateral control of a master-slave robotic system is a challenging issue in robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery. It requires the knowledge on contact interaction between a surgical (slave) robot and soft tissues. This paper presents a master-slave robotic system for needle indentation and insertion. This master-slave robotic system is able to characterize the contact interaction between the robotic needle and soft tissues. A bilateral controller is implemented using a linear motor for robotic needle indentation and insertion. A new nonlinear state observer is developed to online monitor the contact interaction with soft tissues. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed master-slave robotic system for robotic needle indentation and needle insertion.

Experimental evaluation of magnified haptic feedback for robot-assisted needle insertion and palpation.

Science.gov (United States)

Meli, Leonardo; Pacchierotti, Claudio; Prattichizzo, Domenico

2017-12-01

Haptic feedback has been proven to play a key role in enhancing the performance of teleoperated medical procedures. However, due to safety issues, commercially-available medical robots do not currently provide the clinician with haptic feedback. This work presents the experimental evaluation of a teleoperation system for robot-assisted medical procedures able to provide magnified haptic feedback to the clinician. Forces registered at the operating table are magnified and provided to the clinician through a 7-DoF haptic interface. The same interface is also used to control the motion of a 6-DoF slave robotic manipulator. The safety of the system is guaranteed by a time-domain passivity-based control algorithm. Two experiments were carried out on stiffness discrimination (during palpation and needle insertion) and one experiment on needle guidance. Our haptic-enabled teleoperation system improved the performance with respect to direct hand interaction of 80%, 306%, and 27% in stiffness discrimination through palpation, stiffness discrimination during needle insertion, and guidance, respectively. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Intraoperative registered transrectal ultrasound guidance for robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohareri, Omid; Ischia, Joseph; Black, Peter C; Schneider, Caitlin; Lobo, Julio; Goldenberg, Larry; Salcudean, Septimiu E

2015-01-01

To provide unencumbered real-time ultrasound image guidance during robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, we developed a robotic transrectal ultrasound system that tracks the da Vinci® Surgical System instruments. We describe our initial clinical experience with this system. After an evaluation in a canine model, 20 patients were enrolled in the study. During each procedure the transrectal ultrasound transducer was manually positioned using a brachytherapy stabilizer to provide good imaging of the prostate. Then the transrectal ultrasound was registered to the da Vinci robot by a previously validated procedure. Finally, automatic rotation of the transrectal ultrasound was enabled such that the transrectal ultrasound imaging plane safely tracked the tip of the da Vinci instrument controlled by the surgeon, while real-time transrectal ultrasound images were relayed to the surgeon at the da Vinci console. Tracking was activated during all critical stages of the surgery. The transrectal ultrasound robot was easy to set up and use, adding 7 minutes (range 5 to 14) to the procedure. It did not require an assistant or additional control devices. Qualitative feedback was acquired from the surgeons, who found transrectal ultrasound useful in identifying the urethra while passing the dorsal venous complex suture, defining the prostate-bladder interface during bladder neck dissection, identifying the seminal vesicles and their location with respect to the rectal wall, and identifying the distal prostate boundary at the apex. Real-time, registered robotic transrectal ultrasound guidance with automatic instrument tracking during robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy is feasible and potentially useful. The results justify further studies to establish whether the approach can improve procedure outcomes. Copyright © 2015 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cost-effectiveness of open versus laparoscopic versus robotic-assisted laparoscopic cystectomy and urinary diversion.

Science.gov (United States)

Zehnder, Pascal; Gill, Inderbir S

2011-09-01

To provide insight into the recently published cost comparisons in the context of open, laparoscopic, and robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy and to demonstrate the complexity of such economic analyses. Most economic evaluations are from a hospital perspective and summarize short-term perioperative therapeutic costs. However, the contributing factors (e.g. study design, included variables, robotic amortization plan, supply contract, surgical volume, surgeons' experience, etc.) vary substantially between the institutions. In addition, a real cost-effective analysis considering cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained is not feasible because of the lack of long-term oncologic and functional outcome data with the robotic procedure. On the basis of a modeled cost analysis using results from published series, robotic-assisted cystectomy was - with few exceptions - found to be more expensive when compared with the open approach. Immediate costs are affected most by operative time, followed by length of hospital stay, robotic supply, case volume, robotic cost, and transfusion rate. Any complication substantially impacts overall costs. Economic cost evaluations are complex analyses influenced by numerous factors that hardly allow an interinstitutional comparison. Robotic-assisted cystectomy is constantly refined with many institutions being somewhere on their learning curve. Transparent reports of oncologic and functional outcome data from centers of expertise applying standardized methods will help to properly analyze the real long-term benefits of robotic surgery and successor technologies and prevent us from becoming slaves of successful marketing strategies.

Robotic assisted surgery in pediatric gynecology: promising innovation in mini invasive surgical procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakib, Ghassan; Calcaterra, Valeria; Scorletti, Federico; Romano, Piero; Goruppi, Ilaria; Mencherini, Simonetta; Avolio, Luigi; Pelizzo, Gloria

2013-02-01

Robotic assisted surgery is not yet widely applied in the pediatric field. We report our initial experience regarding the feasibility, safety, benefits, and limitations of robot-assisted surgery in pediatric gynecological patients. Descriptive, retrospective report of experience with pediatric gynecological patients over a period of 12 months. Department of Pediatric Surgery, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation. Children and adolescents, with a surgical diagnosis of ovarian and/or tubal lesions. Robot assembly time and operative time, days of hospitalization, time to cessation of pain medication, complication rate, conversion rate to laparoscopic procedure and trocar insertion strategy. Six children and adolescents (2.4-15 yrs), weighing 12-55 kg, underwent robotic assisted surgery for adnexal pathologies: 2 for ovarian cystectomy, 2 for oophorectomy, 1 for right oophorectomy and left salpingo-oophorectomy for gonadal disgenesis, 1 for exploration for suspected pelvic malformation. Mean operative time was 117.5 ± 34.9 minutes. Conversion to laparatomy was not necessary in any of the cases. No intra- or postoperative complications occurred. Initial results indicate that robotic assisted surgery is safely applicable in the pediatric gynecological population, although it is still premature to conclude that it provides better clinical outcomes than traditional laparoscopic surgery. Randomized, prospective, comparative studies will help characterize the advantages and disadvantages of this new technology in pediatric patients. Copyright © 2013 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Admittance Control for Robot Assisted Retinal Vein Micro-Cannulation under Human-Robot Collaborative Mode

Science.gov (United States)

Gonenc, Berk; Iordachita, Iulian

2017-01-01

Retinal vein occlusion is one of the most common retinovascular diseases. Retinal vein cannulation is a potentially effective treatment method for this condition that currently lies, however, at the limits of human capabilities. In this work, the aim is to use robotic systems and advanced instrumentation to alleviate these challenges, and assist the procedure via a human-robot collaborative mode based on our earlier work on the Steady-Hand Eye Robot and force-sensing instruments. An admittance control method is employed to stabilize the cannula relative to the vein and maintain it inside the lumen during the injection process. A pre-stress strategy is used to prevent the tip of microneedle from getting out of vein in in prolonged infusions, and the performance is verified through simulations. PMID:29607442

ACOG Technology Assessment in Obstetrics and Gynecology No. 6: Robot-assisted surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-11-01

The field of robotic surgery is developing rapidly, but experience with this technology is currently limited. In response to increasing interest in robotics technology, the Committee on Gynecologic Practice's Technology Assessment was developed to describe the robotic surgical system,potential advantages and disadvantages, gynecologic applications, and the current state of the evidence. Randomized trials comparing robot-assisted surgery with traditional laparoscopic, vaginal, or abdominal surgery are needed to evaluate long-term clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness, as well as to identify the best applications of this technology.

Velocity-curvature patterns limit human-robot physical interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Maurice, Pauline; Huber, Meghan E; Hogan, Neville; Sternad, Dagmar

2018-01-01

Physical human-robot collaboration is becoming more common, both in industrial and service robotics. Cooperative execution of a task requires intuitive and efficient interaction between both actors. For humans, this means being able to predict and adapt to robot movements. Given that natural human movement exhibits several robust features, we examined whether human-robot physical interaction is facilitated when these features are considered in robot control. The present study investigated how humans adapt to biological and non-biological velocity patterns in robot movements. Participants held the end-effector of a robot that traced an elliptic path with either biological (two-thirds power law) or non-biological velocity profiles. Participants were instructed to minimize the force applied on the robot end-effector. Results showed that the applied force was significantly lower when the robot moved with a biological velocity pattern. With extensive practice and enhanced feedback, participants were able to decrease their force when following a non-biological velocity pattern, but never reached forces below those obtained with the 2/3 power law profile. These results suggest that some robust features observed in natural human movements are also a strong preference in guided movements. Therefore, such features should be considered in human-robot physical collaboration.

An actuated force feedback-enabled laparoscopic instrument for robotic-assisted surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Moradi Dalvand, Mohsen; Shirinzadeh, Bijan; Shamdani, Amir Hossein; Smith, Julian; Zhong, Yongmin

2014-03-01

Robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery systems not only have the advantages of traditional laparoscopic instruments but also have other important advantages, including restoring the surgeon's hand-eye coordination and improving the surgeon's precision by filtering hand tremors. Unfortunately, these benefits have come at the expense of the surgeon's ability to feel. Various solutions for restoring this feature have been proposed. An actuated modular force feedback-enabled laparoscopic instrument was proposed that is able to measure tip-tissue lateral interaction forces as well as normal grasping forces. The instrument has also the capability to adjust the grasping direction inside the patient body. In order to measure the interaction forces, strain gauges were employed. A series of finite element analyses were performed to gain an understanding of the actual magnitude of surface strains where gauges are applied. The strain gauge bridge configurations were calibrated. A series of experiments was conducted and the results were analysed. The modularity feature of the proposed instrument makes it interchangeable between various tip types of different functionalities (e.g. cutter, grasper, dissector). Calibration results of the strain gauges incorporated into the tube and at the base of the instrument presented the monotonic responses for these strain gauge configurations. Experimental results from tissue probing and tissue characterization experiments verified the capability of the proposed instrument in measuring lateral probing forces and characterizing artificial tissue samples of varying stiffness. The proposed instrument can improve the quality of palpation and characterization of soft tissues of varying stiffness by restoring sense of touch in robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery operations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessing User Needs and Requirements for Assistive Robots at Home.

Science.gov (United States)

Werner, Katharina; Werner, Franz

2015-01-01

'Robots in healthcare' is a very trending topic. This paper gives an overview of currently and commonly used methods to gather user needs and requirements in research projects in the field of assistive robotics. Common strategies between authors are presented as well as examples of exceptions, which can help future researchers to find methods suitable for their own work. Typical problems of the field are discussed and partial solutions are proposed.

Anthropomorphic Robot Design and User Interaction Associated with Motion

Science.gov (United States)

Ellis, Stephen R.

2016-01-01

Though in its original concept a robot was conceived to have some human-like shape, most robots now in use have specific industrial purposes and do not closely resemble humans. Nevertheless, robots that resemble human form in some way have continued to be introduced. They are called anthropomorphic robots. The fact that the user interface to all robots is now highly mediated means that the form of the user interface is not necessarily connected to the robots form, human or otherwise. Consequently, the unique way the design of anthropomorphic robots affects their user interaction is through their general appearance and the way they move. These robots human-like appearance acts as a kind of generalized predictor that gives its operators, and those with whom they may directly work, the expectation that they will behave to some extent like a human. This expectation is especially prominent for interactions with social robots, which are built to enhance it. Often interaction with them may be mainly cognitive because they are not necessarily kinematically intricate enough for complex physical interaction. Their body movement, for example, may be limited to simple wheeled locomotion. An anthropomorphic robot with human form, however, can be kinematically complex and designed, for example, to reproduce the details of human limb, torso, and head movement. Because of the mediated nature of robot control, there remains in general no necessary connection between the specific form of user interface and the anthropomorphic form of the robot. But their anthropomorphic kinematics and dynamics imply that the impact of their design shows up in the way the robot moves. The central finding of this report is that the control of this motion is a basic design element through which the anthropomorphic form can affect user interaction. In particular, designers of anthropomorphic robots can take advantage of the inherent human-like movement to 1) improve the users direct manual control over

Maximizing Use of Robot-Arm No. 3 in Da Vinci–Assisted Thoracic Surgery

Science.gov (United States)

Kajiwara, Naohiro; Maeda, Junichi; Yoshida, Koichi; Kato, Yasufumi; Hagiwara, Masaru; Kakihana, Masatoshi; Ohira, Tatsuo; Kawate, Norihiko; Ikeda, Norihiko

2015-01-01

We have previously reported on the importance of appropriate robot-arm settings and replacement of instrument ports in robot-assisted thoracic surgery, because the thoracic cavity requires a large space to access all lesions in various areas of the thoracic cavity from the apex to the diaphragm and mediastinum and the chest wall.1–3 Moreover, it can be difficult to manipulate the da Vinci Surgical System using only arms No. 1 and No. 2 depending on the tumor location. However, arm No. 3 is usually positioned on the same side as arm No. 2, and sometimes it is only used as an assisting-arm to avoid conflict with other arms (Fig. 1). In this report, we show how robot-arm No. 3 can be used with maximum effectiveness in da Vinci-assisted thoracic surgery. PMID:26011219

On the Use of the Humanoid Bioloid System for Robot-Assisted Transcription of Mexican Spanish Speech

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Santiago-Omar Caballero-Morales

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Within the context of service robotics (SR, the development of assistive technologies has become an important research field. However, the accomplishment of assistive tasks requires precise and fine control of the mechanic systems that integrate the robotic entity. Among the most challenging tasks in robot control, the handwriting task (transcription is of particular interest due to the fine control required to draw single and multiple alphabet characters to express words and sentences. For language learning activities, robot-assisted speech transcription can motivate the student to practice pronunciation and writing tasks in a dynamic environment. Hence, this paper is aimed to provide the techniques and models to accomplish accurate robot-assisted transcription of Spanish speech. The transcriptor is integrated by a multi-user speech recognizer for continuous speech and the kinematic models for the Mexican Spanish alphabet characters. The Bioloid system with the standard humanoid configuration and no special modifications or tools was considered for implementation. Particularly, the proposed transcriptor could perform the handwriting task with the Bioloid’s two two DOF (degrees-of-freedom arms. This enabled writing of one-line short and long sentences with small alphabet characters (width <1.0 cm. It is expected that the technique and models that integrate the transcriptor can provide support for the development of robot-assisted language learning activities for children and young adults.

Robot-assisted ultrasound imaging: overview and development of a parallel telerobotic system.

Science.gov (United States)

Monfaredi, Reza; Wilson, Emmanuel; Azizi Koutenaei, Bamshad; Labrecque, Brendan; Leroy, Kristen; Goldie, James; Louis, Eric; Swerdlow, Daniel; Cleary, Kevin

2015-02-01

Ultrasound imaging is frequently used in medicine. The quality of ultrasound images is often dependent on the skill of the sonographer. Several researchers have proposed robotic systems to aid in ultrasound image acquisition. In this paper we first provide a short overview of robot-assisted ultrasound imaging (US). We categorize robot-assisted US imaging systems into three approaches: autonomous US imaging, teleoperated US imaging, and human-robot cooperation. For each approach several systems are introduced and briefly discussed. We then describe a compact six degree of freedom parallel mechanism telerobotic system for ultrasound imaging developed by our research team. The long-term goal of this work is to enable remote ultrasound scanning through teleoperation. This parallel mechanism allows for both translation and rotation of an ultrasound probe mounted on the top plate along with force control. Our experimental results confirmed good mechanical system performance with a positioning error of < 1 mm. Phantom experiments by a radiologist showed promising results with good image quality.

Human-Robot Interaction Directed Research Project

Science.gov (United States)

Sandor, Aniko; Cross, Ernest V., II; Chang, Mai Lee

2014-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a discipline investigating the factors affecting the interactions between humans and robots. It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces and command modalities affect the human's ability to perform tasks accurately, efficiently, and effectively when working with a robot. By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed to appropriately support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for the design of robotic systems. This DRP concentrates on three areas associated with interfaces and command modalities in HRI which are applicable to NASA robot systems: 1) Video Overlays, 2) Camera Views, and 3) Command Modalities. The first study focused on video overlays that investigated how Augmented Reality (AR) symbology can be added to the human-robot interface to improve teleoperation performance. Three types of AR symbology were explored in this study, command guidance (CG), situation guidance (SG), and both (SCG). CG symbology gives operators explicit instructions on what commands to input, whereas SG symbology gives operators implicit cues so that operators can infer the input commands. The combination of CG and SG provided operators with explicit and implicit cues allowing the operator to choose which symbology to utilize. The objective of the study was to understand how AR symbology affects the human operator's ability to align a robot arm to a target using a flight stick and the ability to allocate attention between the symbology and external views of the world. The study evaluated the effects type of symbology (CG and SG) has on operator tasks performance and attention allocation during teleoperation of a robot arm. The second study expanded on the first study by evaluating the effects of the type of

Teaching Human Poses Interactively to a Social Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez-Pacheco, Victor; Malfaz, Maria; Fernandez, Fernando; Salichs, Miguel A.

2013-01-01

The main activity of social robots is to interact with people. In order to do that, the robot must be able to understand what the user is saying or doing. Typically, this capability consists of pre-programmed behaviors or is acquired through controlled learning processes, which are executed before the social interaction begins. This paper presents a software architecture that enables a robot to learn poses in a similar way as people do. That is, hearing its teacher's explanations and acquiring new knowledge in real time. The architecture leans on two main components: an RGB-D (Red-, Green-, Blue- Depth) -based visual system, which gathers the user examples, and an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system, which processes the speech describing those examples. The robot is able to naturally learn the poses the teacher is showing to it by maintaining a natural interaction with the teacher. We evaluate our system with 24 users who teach the robot a predetermined set of poses. The experimental results show that, with a few training examples, the system reaches high accuracy and robustness. This method shows how to combine data from the visual and auditory systems for the acquisition of new knowledge in a natural manner. Such a natural way of training enables robots to learn from users, even if they are not experts in robotics. PMID:24048336

Teaching Human Poses Interactively to a Social Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel A. Salichs

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The main activity of social robots is to interact with people. In order to do that, the robot must be able to understand what the user is saying or doing. Typically, this capability consists of pre-programmed behaviors or is acquired through controlled learning processes, which are executed before the social interaction begins. This paper presents a software architecture that enables a robot to learn poses in a similar way as people do. That is, hearing its teacher’s explanations and acquiring new knowledge in real time. The architecture leans on two main components: an RGB-D (Red-, Green-, Blue- Depth -based visual system, which gathers the user examples, and an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR system, which processes the speech describing those examples. The robot is able to naturally learn the poses the teacher is showing to it by maintaining a natural interaction with the teacher. We evaluate our system with 24 users who teach the robot a predetermined set of poses. The experimental results show that, with a few training examples, the system reaches high accuracy and robustness. This method shows how to combine data from the visual and auditory systems for the acquisition of new knowledge in a natural manner. Such a natural way of training enables robots to learn from users, even if they are not experts in robotics.

Human-Robot Interaction in High Vulnerability Domains

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Gore, Brian F.

2016-01-01

Future NASA missions will require successful integration of the human with highly complex systems. Highly complex systems are likely to involve humans, automation, and some level of robotic assistance. The complex environments will require successful integration of the human with automation, with robots, and with human-automation-robot teams to accomplish mission critical goals. Many challenges exist for the human performing in these types of operational environments with these kinds of systems. Systems must be designed to optimally integrate various levels of inputs and outputs based on the roles and responsibilities of the human, the automation, and the robots; from direct manual control, shared human-robotic control, or no active human control (i.e. human supervisory control). It is assumed that the human will remain involved at some level. Technologies that vary based on contextual demands and on operator characteristics (workload, situation awareness) will be needed when the human integrates into these systems. Predictive models that estimate the impact of the technologies on the system performance and the on the human operator are also needed to meet the challenges associated with such future complex human-automation-robot systems in extreme environments.

Animal Robot Assisted-therapy for Rehabilitation of Patient with Post-Stroke Depression

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Zikril Zulkifli, Winal; Shamsuddin, Syamimi; Hwee, Lim Thiam

2017-06-01

Recently, the utilization of therapeutic animal robots has expanded. This research aims to explore robotics application for mental healthcare in Malaysia through human-robot interaction (HRI). PARO, the robotic seal PARO was developed to give psychological effects on humans. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a common but severe mood disorder. This study focuses on the interaction protocol between PARO and patients with MDD. Initially, twelve rehabilitation patients gave subjective evaluation on their first interaction with PARO. Next, therapeutic interaction environment was set-up with PARO in it to act as an augmentation strategy with other psychological interventions for post-stroke depression. Patient was exposed to PARO for 20 minutes. The results of behavioural analysis complemented with information from HRI survey question. The analysis also observed that the individual interactors engaged with the robot in diverse ways based on their needs Results show positive reaction toward the acceptance of an animal robot. Next, therapeutic interaction is set-up for PARO to contribute as an augmentation strategy with other psychological interventions for post-stroke depression. The outcome is to reduce the stress level among patients through facilitated therapy session with PARO

Care robots for the supermarket shelf: a product gap in assistive technologies.

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Blackman, Tim

2013-07-01

The literature on the development of assistive robots is dominated by technological papers with little consideration of how such devices might be commercialised for a mass market at a price that is affordable for older people and their families as well as public services and care insurers. This article argues that the focus of technical development in this field is too ambitious, neglecting the potential market for an affordable device that is aleady in the realm of the 'adjacent possible' given current technology capabilities. It also questions on both ethical and marketing grounds the current effort to develop assistive robots with pet-like or human-like features. The marketing literature on 'really new products' has so far not appeared to inform the development of assistive robots but has some important lessons. These include using analogies with existing products and giving particular attention to the role of early adopters. Relevant analogies for care robots are not animals or humans but useful domestic appliances and personal technologies with attractive designs, engaging functionality and intuitive usability. This points to a strategy for enabling mass adoption - which has so far eluded even conventional telecare - of emphasising how such an appliance is part of older people's contemporary lifestyles rather than a sign of age-related decline and loss of independence.

A Human-Robot Co-Manipulation Approach Based on Human Sensorimotor Information.

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Peternel, Luka; Tsagarakis, Nikos; Ajoudani, Arash

2017-07-01

This paper aims to improve the interaction and coordination between the human and the robot in cooperative execution of complex, powerful, and dynamic tasks. We propose a novel approach that integrates online information about the human motor function and manipulability properties into the hybrid controller of the assistive robot. Through this human-in-the-loop framework, the robot can adapt to the human motor behavior and provide the appropriate assistive response in different phases of the cooperative task. We experimentally evaluate the proposed approach in two human-robot co-manipulation tasks that require specific complementary behavior from the two agents. Results suggest that the proposed technique, which relies on a minimum degree of task-level pre-programming, can achieve an enhanced physical human-robot interaction performance and deliver appropriate level of assistance to the human operator.

Robot-assisted tubal reanastomosis: Initial experience in a single institution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmet Göçmen

2013-03-01

Conclusion: Robot-assisted TLR is safe and feasible. This procedure may facilitate minimally invasive treatment for patients who want to regain their fertility without the aid of artificial reproductive techniques.

How to set up a robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery center and training of staff.

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Lenihan, John P

2017-11-01

The use of computers to assist surgeons in the operating room has been an inevitable evolution in the modern practice of surgery. Robotic-assisted surgery has been evolving now for over two decades and has finally matured into a technology that has caused a monumental shift in the way gynecologic surgeries are performed. Prior to robotics, the only minimally invasive options for most Gynecologic (GYN) procedures including hysterectomies were either vaginal or laparoscopic approaches. However, even with over 100 years of vaginal surgery experience and more than 20 years of laparoscopic advancements, most gynecologic surgeries in the United States were still performed through an open incision. However, this changed in 2005 when the FDA approved the da Vinci Surgical Robotic System tm for use in gynecologic surgery. Over the last decade, the trend for gynecologic surgeries has now dramatically shifted to less open and more minimally invasive procedures. Robotic-assisted surgeries now include not only hysterectomy but also most all other commonly performed gynecologic procedures including myomectomies, pelvic support procedures, and reproductive surgeries. This success, however, has not been without controversies, particularly around costs and complications. The evolution of computers to assist surgeons and make minimally invasive procedures more common is clearly a trend that is not going away. It is now incumbent on surgeons, hospitals, and medical societies to determine the most cost-efficient and productive use for this technology. This process is best accomplished by developing a Robotics Program in each hospital that utilizes robotic surgery. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Development of Methodologies, Metrics, and Tools for Investigating Human-Robot Interaction in Space Robotics

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Ezer, Neta; Zumbado, Jennifer Rochlis; Sandor, Aniko; Boyer, Jennifer

2011-01-01

Human-robot systems are expected to have a central role in future space exploration missions that extend beyond low-earth orbit [1]. As part of a directed research project funded by NASA s Human Research Program (HRP), researchers at the Johnson Space Center have started to use a variety of techniques, including literature reviews, case studies, knowledge capture, field studies, and experiments to understand critical human-robot interaction (HRI) variables for current and future systems. Activities accomplished to date include observations of the International Space Station s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), Robonaut, and Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV), as well as interviews with robotics trainers, robot operators, and developers of gesture interfaces. A survey of methods and metrics used in HRI was completed to identify those most applicable to space robotics. These methods and metrics included techniques and tools associated with task performance, the quantification of human-robot interactions and communication, usability, human workload, and situation awareness. The need for more research in areas such as natural interfaces, compensations for loss of signal and poor video quality, psycho-physiological feedback, and common HRI testbeds were identified. The initial findings from these activities and planned future research are discussed. Human-robot systems are expected to have a central role in future space exploration missions that extend beyond low-earth orbit [1]. As part of a directed research project funded by NASA s Human Research Program (HRP), researchers at the Johnson Space Center have started to use a variety of techniques, including literature reviews, case studies, knowledge capture, field studies, and experiments to understand critical human-robot interaction (HRI) variables for current and future systems. Activities accomplished to date include observations of the International Space Station s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator

Toward understanding social cues and signals in human–robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior

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Fiore, Stephen M.; Wiltshire, Travis J.; Lobato, Emilio J. C.; Jentsch, Florian G.; Huang, Wesley H.; Axelrod, Benjamin

2013-01-01

As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human–robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot AvaTM mobile robotics platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot’s proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot’s social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot’s gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot’s mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals. PMID:24348434

Towards understanding social cues and signals in human-robot interaction: Effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen M. Fiore

2013-11-01

Full Text Available As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human-robot interaction (HRI. We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot Ava™ Mobile Robotics Platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot’s proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot’s social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot’s gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot’s mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals.

Authoring Robot-Assisted Instructional Materials for Improving Learning Performance and Motivation in EFL Classrooms

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Hong, Zeng-Wei; Huang, Yueh-Min; Hsu, Marie; Shen, Wei-Wei

2016-01-01

Anthropomorphized robots are regarded as beneficial tools in education due to their capabilities of improving teaching effectiveness and learning motivation. Therefore, one major trend of research, known as Robot- Assisted Language Learning (RALL), is trying to develop robots to support teaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL). As…

Robot-assisted walking with the Lokomat: the influence of different levels of guidance force on thorax and pelvis kinematics.

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Swinnen, Eva; Baeyens, Jean-Pierre; Knaepen, Kristel; Michielsen, Marc; Clijsen, Ron; Beckwée, David; Kerckhofs, Eric

2015-03-01

Little attention has been devoted to the thorax and pelvis movements during gait. The aim of this study is to compare differences in the thorax and pelvis kinematics during unassisted walking on a treadmill and during walking with robot assistance (Lokomat-system (Hocoma, Volketswil, Switzerland)). 18 healthy persons walked on a treadmill with and without the Lokomat system at 2kmph. Three different conditions of guidance force (30%, 60% and 100%) were used during robot-assisted treadmill walking (30% body weight support). The maximal movement amplitudes of the thorax and pelvis were measured (Polhemus Liberty™ (Polhemus, Colchester, Vermont, USA) (240/16)). A repeated measurement ANOVA was conducted. Robot-assisted treadmill walking with different levels of guidance force showed significantly smaller maximal movement amplitudes for thorax and pelvis, compared to treadmill walking. Only the antero-posterior tilting of the pelvis was significantly increased during robot-assisted treadmill walking compared to treadmill walking. No significant changes of kinematic parameters were found between the different levels of guidance force. With regard to the thorax and pelvis movements, robot-assisted treadmill walking is significantly different compared to treadmill walking. It can be concluded that when using robot assistance, the thorax is stimulated in a different way than during walking without robot assistance, influencing the balance training during gait. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contact Estimation in Robot Interaction

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Filippo D'Ippolito

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In the paper, safety issues are examined in a scenario in which a robot manipulator and a human perform the same task in the same workspace. During the task execution, the human should be able to physically interact with the robot, and in this case an estimation algorithm for both interaction forces and a contact point is proposed in order to guarantee safety conditions. The method, starting from residual joint torque estimation, allows both direct and adaptive computation of the contact point and force, based on a principle of equivalence of the contact forces. At the same time, all the unintended contacts must be avoided, and a suitable post-collision strategy is considered to move the robot away from the collision area or else to reduce impact effects. Proper experimental tests have demonstrated the applicability in practice of both the post-impact strategy and the estimation algorithms; furthermore, experiments demonstrate the different behaviour resulting from the adaptation of the contact point as opposed to direct calculation.

Face and content validity of Xperience™ Team Trainer: bed-side assistant training simulator for robotic surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Sessa, Luca; Perrenot, Cyril; Xu, Song; Hubert, Jacques; Bresler, Laurent; Brunaud, Laurent; Perez, Manuela

2018-03-01

In robotic surgery, the coordination between the console-side surgeon and bed-side assistant is crucial, more than in standard surgery or laparoscopy where the surgical team works in close contact. Xperience™ Team Trainer (XTT) is a new optional component for the dv-Trainer ® platform and simulates the patient-side working environment. We present preliminary results for face, content, and the workload imposed regarding the use of the XTT virtual reality platform for the psychomotor and communication skills training of the bed-side assistant in robot-assisted surgery. Participants were categorized into "Beginners" and "Experts". They tested a series of exercises (Pick & Place Laparoscopic Demo, Pick & Place 2 and Team Match Board 1) and completed face validity questionnaires. "Experts" assessed content validity on another questionnaire. All the participants completed a NASA Task Load Index questionnaire to assess the workload imposed by XTT. Twenty-one consenting participants were included (12 "Beginners" and 9 "Experts"). XTT was shown to possess face and content validity, as evidenced by the rankings given on the simulator's ease of use and realism parameters and on the simulator's usefulness for training. Eight out of nine "Experts" judged the visualization of metrics after the exercises useful. However, face validity has shown some weaknesses regarding interactions and instruments. Reasonable workload parameters were registered. XTT demonstrated excellent face and content validity with acceptable workload parameters. XTT could become a useful tool for robotic surgery team training.

Percutaneous Sacroiliac Screw Placement: A Prospective Randomized Comparison of Robot-assisted Navigation Procedures with a Conventional Technique

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Wang, Jun-Qiang; Wang, Yu; Feng, Yun; Han, Wei; Su, Yong-Gang; Liu, Wen-Yong; Zhang, Wei-Jun; Wu, Xin-Bao; Wang, Man-Yi; Fan, Yu-Bo

2017-01-01

Background: Sacroiliac (SI) screw fixation is a demanding technique, with a high rate of screw malposition due to the complex pelvic anatomy. TiRobot™ is an orthopedic surgery robot which can be used for SI screw fixation. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of robot-assisted placement of SI screws compared with a freehand technique. Methods: Thirty patients requiring posterior pelvic ring stabilization were randomized to receive freehand or robot-assisted SI screw fixation, between January 2016 and June 2016 at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital. Forty-five screws were placed at levels S1 and S2. In both methods, the primary end point screw position was assessed and classified using postoperative computed tomography. Fisher's exact probability test was used to analyze the screws’ positions. Secondary end points, such as duration of trajectory planning, surgical time after reduction of the pelvis, insertion time for guide wire, number of guide wire attempts, and radiation exposure without pelvic reduction, were also assessed. Results: Twenty-three screws were placed in the robot-assisted group and 22 screws in the freehand group; no postoperative complications or revisions were reported. The excellent and good rate of screw placement was 100% in the robot-assisted group and 95% in the freehand group. The P value (0.009) showed the same superiority in screw distribution. The fluoroscopy time after pelvic reduction in the robot-assisted group was significantly shorter than that in the freehand group (median [Q1, Q3]: 6.0 [6.0, 9.0] s vs. median [Q1, Q3]: 36.0 [21.5, 48.0] s; χ2 = 13.590, respectively, P < 0.001); no difference in operation time after reduction of the pelvis was noted (χ2 = 1.990, P = 0.158). Time for guide wire insertion was significantly shorter for the robot-assisted group than that for the freehand group (median [Q1, Q3]: 2.0 [2.0, 2.7] min vs. median [Q1, Q3]: 19.0 [15.5, 45.0] min; χ2 = 20.952, respectively, P < 0.001). The number of guide

Control of a Robot Dancer for Enhancing Haptic Human-Robot Interaction in Waltz.

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Hongbo Wang; Kosuge, K

2012-01-01

Haptic interaction between a human leader and a robot follower in waltz is studied in this paper. An inverted pendulum model is used to approximate the human's body dynamics. With the feedbacks from the force sensor and laser range finders, the robot is able to estimate the human leader's state by using an extended Kalman filter (EKF). To reduce interaction force, two robot controllers, namely, admittance with virtual force controller, and inverted pendulum controller, are proposed and evaluated in experiments. The former controller failed the experiment; reasons for the failure are explained. At the same time, the use of the latter controller is validated by experiment results.

Soft brain-machine interfaces for assistive robotics: A novel control approach.

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Schiatti, Lucia; Tessadori, Jacopo; Barresi, Giacinto; Mattos, Leonardo S; Ajoudani, Arash

2017-07-01

Robotic systems offer the possibility of improving the life quality of people with severe motor disabilities, enhancing the individual's degree of independence and interaction with the external environment. In this direction, the operator's residual functions must be exploited for the control of the robot movements and the underlying dynamic interaction through intuitive and effective human-robot interfaces. Towards this end, this work aims at exploring the potential of a novel Soft Brain-Machine Interface (BMI), suitable for dynamic execution of remote manipulation tasks for a wide range of patients. The interface is composed of an eye-tracking system, for an intuitive and reliable control of a robotic arm system's trajectories, and a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) unit, for the control of the robot Cartesian stiffness, which determines the interaction forces between the robot and environment. The latter control is achieved by estimating in real-time a unidimensional index from user's electroencephalographic (EEG) signals, which provides the probability of a neutral or active state. This estimated state is then translated into a stiffness value for the robotic arm, allowing a reliable modulation of the robot's impedance. A preliminary evaluation of this hybrid interface concept provided evidence on the effective execution of tasks with dynamic uncertainties, demonstrating the great potential of this control method in BMI applications for self-service and clinical care.

Retention of robot-assisted surgical skills in urological surgeons acquired using Mimic dV-Trainer.

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Teishima, Jun; Hattori, Minoru; Inoue, Shogo; Ikeda, Kenichiro; Hieda, Keisuke; Ohara, Shinya; Egi, Hiroyuki; Ohdan, Hideki; Matsubara, Akio

2014-07-01

We assess the retention of robot-assisted surgical skills among urologic surgeons. The robot-assisted surgery skills of 20 urologic surgeons were assessed using a Mimic dV-Trainer program (Mimic Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA) consisting of 6 tasks. These 20 surgeons had no previous experience either using the Mimic dV-Trainer or acting as the main surgeon in robot-assisted surgery. The surgeons completed the program 4 times in a row; after 1 year, they completed it again for a fifth time. Performance scores were recorded using the Mimic dV-Trainer's built-in algorithm. For all 6 tasks, there were significant improvements to the scores in the fourth trials compared with those in the first trials. The scores in the fifth trials did not significantly decline compared with those in the fourth trials. There was no significant difference between the fifth trial scores of surgeons with laparoscopic surgery skills/experience and those without. Our results indicate that fundamental robot-assisted surgical skills can be retained in the long-term after they are acquired.

Robotic-assisted transoral removal of a bilateral floor of mouth ranulas

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Stromeyer Frederick W

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objective To describe the management of bilateral oral ranulas with the use of the da Vinci Si Surgical System and discuss advantages and disadvantages over traditional transoral resection. Study Design Case Report and Review of Literature. Results A 47 year old woman presented to our service with an obvious right floor of mouth swelling. Clinical evaluation and computerized tomography scan confirmed a large floor of mouth ranula on the right and an incidental asymptomatic early ranula of the left sublingual gland. After obtaining an informed consent, the patient underwent a right transoral robotic-assisted transoral excision of the ranula and sublingual gland with identification and dissection of the submandibular duct and lingual nerve. The patient had an excellent outcome with no evidence of lingual nerve paresis and a return to oral intake on the first postoperative day. Subsequently, the patient underwent an elective transoral robotic-assisted excision of the incidental ranula on the left sublingual gland. Conclusion We describe the first robotic-assisted excision of bilateral oral ranulas in current literature. The use of the da Vinci system provides excellent visualization, magnification, and dexterity for transoral surgical management of ranulas with preservation of the lingual nerve and Wharton's duct with good functional outcomes. However, the use of the robotic system for anterior floor of mouth surgery in terms of improved surgical outcomes as compared to traditional transoral surgery, long-term recurrence rates, and cost effectiveness needs further validation.

Robot-assisted automatic ultrasound calibration.

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Aalamifar, Fereshteh; Cheng, Alexis; Kim, Younsu; Hu, Xiao; Zhang, Haichong K; Guo, Xiaoyu; Boctor, Emad M

2016-10-01

Ultrasound (US) calibration is the process of determining the unknown transformation from a coordinate frame such as the robot's tooltip to the US image frame and is a necessary task for any robotic or tracked US system. US calibration requires submillimeter-range accuracy for most applications, but it is a time-consuming and repetitive task. We provide a new framework for automatic US calibration with robot assistance and without the need for temporal calibration. US calibration based on active echo (AE) phantom was previously proposed, and its superiority over conventional cross-wire phantom-based calibration was shown. In this work, we use AE to guide the robotic arm motion through the process of data collection; we combine the capability of the AE point to localize itself in the frame of the US image with the automatic motion of the robotic arm to provide a framework for calibrating the arm to the US image automatically. We demonstrated the efficacy of the automated method compared to the manual method through experiments. To highlight the necessity of frequent ultrasound calibration, it is demonstrated that the calibration precision changed from 1.67 to 3.20 mm if the data collection is not repeated after a dismounting/mounting of the probe holder. In a large data set experiment, similar reconstruction precision of automatic and manual data collection was observed, while the time was reduced by 58 %. In addition, we compared ten automatic calibrations with ten manual ones, each performed in 15 min, and showed that all the automatic ones could converge in the case of setting the initial matrix as identity, while this was not achieved by manual data sets. Given the same initial matrix, the repeatability of the automatic was [0.46, 0.34, 0.80, 0.47] versus [0.42, 0.51, 0.98, 1.15] mm in the manual case for the US image four corners. The submillimeter accuracy requirement of US calibration makes frequent data collections unavoidable. We proposed an automated

Sustaining Emotional Communication when Interacting with an Android Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vlachos, Evgenios

The more human-like a robot appears and acts, the more users will have the belief of communicating with a human partner rather than with an artificial entity. However, current robotic technology displays limitations on the design of the facial interface and on the design of believable Human...... of an android related to its actions, perception and intelligence, or failure to identify which robot type is qualified to perform a specific task, might lead to disruption of HRI. This study is concerned with the problem of sustaining emotional communication when interacting with an android social robot......-ended evaluation method pertaining to the interpretation of Android facial expressions (g) a study on how users’ perception and attitude can change after direct interaction with a robot, (h) a study on how androids can maintain the focus of attention during short-term dyadic interactions, and (i) a state...

Assist-as-needed robotic trainer based on reinforcement learning and its application to dart-throwing.

Science.gov (United States)

Obayashi, Chihiro; Tamei, Tomoya; Shibata, Tomohiro

2014-05-01

This paper proposes a novel robotic trainer for motor skill learning. It is user-adaptive inspired by the assist-as-needed principle well known in the field of physical therapy. Most previous studies in the field of the robotic assistance of motor skill learning have used predetermined desired trajectories, and it has not been examined intensively whether these trajectories were optimal for each user. Furthermore, the guidance hypothesis states that humans tend to rely too much on external assistive feedback, resulting in interference with the internal feedback necessary for motor skill learning. A few studies have proposed a system that adjusts its assistive strength according to the user's performance in order to prevent the user from relying too much on the robotic assistance. There are, however, problems in these studies, in that a physical model of the user's motor system is required, which is inherently difficult to construct. In this paper, we propose a framework for a robotic trainer that is user-adaptive and that neither requires a specific desired trajectory nor a physical model of the user's motor system, and we achieve this using model-free reinforcement learning. We chose dart-throwing as an example motor-learning task as it is one of the simplest throwing tasks, and its performance can easily be and quantitatively measured. Training experiments with novices, aiming at maximizing the score with the darts and minimizing the physical robotic assistance, demonstrate the feasibility and plausibility of the proposed framework. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Walking with robot assistance: the influence of body weight support on the trunk and pelvis kinematics.

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Swinnen, Eva; Baeyens, Jean-Pierre; Knaepen, Kristel; Michielsen, Marc; Hens, Gerrit; Clijsen, Ron; Goossens, Maggie; Buyl, Ronald; Meeusen, Romain; Kerckhofs, Eric

2015-05-01

The goal was to assess in healthy participants the three-dimensional kinematics of the pelvis and the trunk during robot-assisted treadmill walking (RATW) at 0%, 30% and 50% body weight support (BWS), compared with treadmill walking (TW). 18 healthy participants walked (2 kmph) on a treadmill with and without robot assistance (Lokomat; 60% guidance force; 0%, 30% and 50% BWS). After an acclimatisation period (four minutes), trunk and pelvis kinematics were registered in each condition (Polhemus Liberty [240 Hz]). The results were analysed using a repeated measures analysis of variance with Bonferroni correction, with the level of suspension as within-subject factor. During RATW with BWS, there were significantly (1) smaller antero-posterior and lateral translations of the trunk and the pelvis; (2) smaller antero-posterior flexion and axial rotation of the trunk; (3) larger lateral flexion of the trunk; and (4) larger antero-posterior tilting of the pelvis compared with TW. There are significant differences in trunk and pelvis kinematics in healthy persons during TW with and without robot assistance. These data are relevant in gait rehabilitation, relating to normal balance regulation. Additional research is recommended to further assess the influence of robot assistance on human gait. The trunk and pelvis moves in a different way during walking with robot assistance. The data suggest that the change in movement is due to the robot device and the harness of the suspension system more than due to the level of suspension itself.

Socio-technological imaginaries, assistive robotics and transformation of care

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nickelsen, Niels Christian Mossfeldt

The media and political/managerial levels focus on the opportunities to re-perform Denmark through digitization. Feeding assistive robotics (FAR) is a welfare technology, relevant to citizens with no function in their arms. Despite national dissemination strategies, it proves difficult to recruit...

Socio-technological imaginaries, assistive robotics and transformation of care

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nickelsen, Niels Christian Mossfeldt; Simonsen Abildgaard, Johan

2018-01-01

The media and political/managerial levels focus on the opportunities to re-perform Denmark through digitization. Feeding assistive robotics (FAR) is a welfare technology, relevant to citizens with no function in their arms. Despite national dissemination strategies, it proves difficult to recruit...

Initial experience with the new da Vinci single-port robot-assisted platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Ballestero Diego, R; Zubillaga Guerrero, S; Truan Cacho, D; Carrion Ballardo, C; Velilla Diez, G; Calleja Hermosa, P; Gutiérrez Baños, J L

2017-06-01

To describe our experience in the first cases of urological surgeries performed with the da Vinci single-port robot-assisted platform. We performed 5 single-port robot-assisted surgeries (R-LESS) between May and October 2014. We performed 3 ureteral reimplant surgeries, one ureteropyeloplasty in an inverted kidney and 1 partial nephrectomy. The perioperative and postoperative results were collected, as well as a report of the complications according to the Clavien classification system. Of the 5 procedures, 4 were performed completely by LESS, while 1 procedure was reconverted to multiport robot-assisted surgery. There were no intraoperative complications. We observed perioperative complications in 4 patients, all of which were grade 1 or 2. The mean surgical time was 262minutes (range, 230-300). In our initial experience with the da Vinci device, R-LESS surgery was feasible and safe. There are still a number of limitations in its use, which require new and improved R-LESS platforms. Copyright © 2016 AEU. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

2015-01-01

Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children's social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a "mental model" of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot's performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot's bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.

Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joachim de Greeff

Full Text Available Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children's social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference; the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a "mental model" of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot's performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot's bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.

Robot Assisted Surgical Ward Rounds: Virtually Always There

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefanie M. Croghan

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Background:  While an explosion in technological sophistication has revolutionized surgery within the operating theatre, delivery of surgical ward-based care has seen little innovation.  Use of telepresence allowing off-site clinicians communicate with patients has been largely restricted to outpatient settings or use of complex, expensive, static devices.  We designed a prospective study to ascertain feasibility and face validity of a remotely controlled mobile audiovisual drone (LUCY to access inpatients.  This device is, uniquely, lightweight, freely mobile and emulates ‘human’ interaction by swiveling and adjusting height to patients’ eye-level.     Methods: Robot-assisted ward rounds(RASWR were conducted over 3 months. A remotely located consultant surgeon communicated with patients/bedside teams via encrypted audiovisual telepresence robot (DoubleRoboticstm, California USA.  Likert-scale satisfaction questionnaires, incorporating free-text sections for mixed-methods data collection, were disseminated to patient and staff volunteers following RASWRs.  The same cohort completed a linked questionnaire following conventional (gold-standard rounds, acting as control group. Data were paired, and non-parametric analysis performed.     Results: RASWRs are feasible (>90% completed without technical difficulty. The RASWR(n=52 observations demonstrated face validity with strong correlations (r>0.7; Spearman, p-value <0.05 between robotic and conventional ward rounds among patients and staff on core themes, including dignity/confidentiality/communication/satisfaction with management plan. Patients (96.08%, n=25 agreed RASWR were a satisfactory alternative when consultant physical presence was not possible. There was acceptance of nursing/NCHD cohort (100% (n=11 willing to regularly partake in RASWR.    Conclusion: RASWRs receive high levels of patient and staff acceptance, and offer a valid alternative to conventional ward rounds

Robot Assisted Surgical Ward Rounds: Virtually Always There.

Science.gov (United States)

Croghan, Stefanie M; Carroll, Paul; Reade, Sarah; Gillis, Amy E; Ridgway, Paul F

2018-05-02

 While an explosion in technological sophistication has revolutionized surgery within the operating theatre, delivery of surgical ward-based care has seen little innovation.  Use of telepresence allowing off-site clinicians communicate with patients has been largely restricted to outpatient settings or use of complex, expensive, static devices.  We designed a prospective study to ascertain feasibility and face validity of a remotely controlled mobile audiovisual drone (LUCY) to access inpatients.  This device is, uniquely, lightweight, freely mobile and emulates 'human' interaction by swiveling and adjusting height to patients' eye-level.   METHODS: Robot-assisted ward rounds(RASWR) were conducted over 3 months. A remotely located consultant surgeon communicated with patients/bedside teams via encrypted audiovisual telepresence robot (DoubleRoboticstm, California USA).  Likert-scale satisfaction questionnaires, incorporating free-text sections for mixed-methods data collection, were disseminated to patient and staff volunteers following RASWRs.  The same cohort completed a linked questionnaire following conventional (gold-standard) rounds, acting as control group. Data were paired, and non-parametric analysis performed.  RESULTS: RASWRs are feasible (>90% completed without technical difficulty). The RASWR(n=52 observations) demonstrated face validity with strong correlations (r>0.7; Spearman, p-value <0.05) between robotic and conventional ward rounds among patients and staff on core themes, including dignity/confidentiality/communication/satisfaction with management plan. Patients (96.08%, n=25) agreed RASWR were a satisfactory alternative when consultant physical presence was not possible. There was acceptance of nursing/NCHD cohort (100% (n=11) willing to regularly partake in RASWR).  CONCLUSION: RASWRs receive high levels of patient and staff acceptance, and offer a valid alternative to conventional ward rounds when a consultant cannot be

Toward understanding social cues and signals in human?robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior

OpenAIRE

Fiore, Stephen M.; Wiltshire, Travis J.; Lobato, Emilio J. C.; Jentsch, Florian G.; Huang, Wesley H.; Axelrod, Benjamin

2013-01-01

As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human–robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relatio...

Tele-care robot for assisting independent senior citizens who live at home.

Science.gov (United States)

Katz, Reuven

2015-01-01

In the last twenty years most developed countries face dramatic demographic changes, and predominantly the rapid aging of their population. As the share of elderly people is climbing while the number of care providers is declining, the aging problem is becoming an increasingly important social and economic challenge. The supply of care at home, utilizing affordable tele-care systems and smart home technologies, is one of the promising strategies to cope with challenges posed by these demographic changes. The goal of this paper is to present a tele-care robot (TCR) aimed to assist Senior citizens who live independently at their home, that need assistance in daily life activities. The idea of the proposed system is that a caregiver, operating from a central location, will be able to service between 10 to 20 patients living at their home, by using the tele-care robot. The robot will possess motion control capabilities to move inside the house of each patient and alert in case that emergency events occur. The robot will allow the care provider to communicate remotely with the patient using audio and video equipment installed on the robot. By using the robot, the caregiver will be able to examine several times during the day the well-being of the patient, his medication consumption, and his overall functionality.

The First Korean Experience of Telemanipulative Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Using the da Vinci System

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Chang Moo; Chi, Hoon Sang; Hyeung, Woo Jin; Kim, Kyung Sik; Choi, Jin Sub; Kim, Byong Ro

2007-01-01

With the advancement of laparoscopic instruments and computer sciences, complex surgical procedures are expected to be safely performed by robot assisted telemanipulative laparoscopic surgery. The da Vinci system (Intuitive Surgical, Mountain View, CA, USA) became available at the many surgical fields. The wrist like movements of the instrument's tip, as well as 3-dimensional vision, could be expected to facilitate more complex laparoscopic procedure. Here, we present the first Korean experience of da Vinci robotic assisted laparoscopic cholecystectomy and discuss the introduction and perspectives of this robotic system. PMID:17594166

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy for women with endometrial cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Herling, Suzanne Forsyth; Møller, Ann M; Palle, Connie

2017-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Robotic-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy (RALH) has become a widely used approach for women with endometrial cancer and has replaced laparotomy. It has been questioned if the increased costs are justified by superior surgical outcomes. The aim of the present study was to examine...

Which Robot Features Can Stimulate Better Responses from Children with Autism in Robot-Assisted Therapy?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaeryoung Lee

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This study explores the response of autistic children to a few design features of the robots for autism therapy and provides suggestions on the robot features that have a stronger influence on the therapeutic process. First, we investigate the effect of selected robot features on the development of social communication skills in autistic children. The results indicate that the toy's “face” and “moving limb” usually draw the children's attention and improve children's facial expression skills, but do not contribute to the development of other social communication skills. Secondly, we study the response of children with low-functioning autism to robots with verbal communication functionalities. Test results show that children interacted with the verbal-featured robot more intensively than with the experimenter. We conclude that robots with faces and moving limbs can engage autistic children in a better way. Facial expression of the robots can elicit a greater response than prompting by humans.

[Robot-assisted Pylorus-Preserving Partial Pancreaticoduodenectomy (Kausch-Whipple Procedure)].

Science.gov (United States)

Aselmann, H; Egberts, J-H; Hinz, S; Jünemann, K-P; Becker, T

2016-04-01

The surgical treatment of pancreatic head tumours is one of the most complex procedures in general surgery. In contrast to colorectal surgery, minimally-invasive techniques are not very commonly applied in pancreatic surgery. Both the delicate dissection along peri- and retropancreatic vessels and the extrahepatic bile ducts and subsequent reconstruction are very demanding with rigid standard laparoscopic instruments. The 4-arm robotic surgery system with angled instruments, unidirectional movement of instruments with adjustable transmission, tremor elimination and a stable, surgeon-controlled 3D-HD view is a promising platform to overcome the limitations of standard laparoscopic surgery regarding precise dissection and reconstruction in pancreatic surgery. Pancreatic head resection for mixed-type IPMN of the pancreatic head. Robot-assisted, minimally-invasive pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy (Kausch-Whipple procedure). The robotic approach is particularly suited for complex procedures such as pylorus-preserving pancreatic head resections. The fully robotic Kausch-Whipple procedure is technically feasible and safe. The advantages of the robotic system are apparent in the delicate dissection near vascular structures, in lymph node dissection, the precise dissection of the uncinate process and, especially, bile duct and pancreatic anastomosis. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Simplified Human-Robot Interaction: Modeling and Evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Balazs Daniel

2013-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper a novel concept of human-robot interaction (HRI modeling is proposed. Including factors like trust in automation, situational awareness, expertise and expectations a new user experience framework is formed for industrial robots. Service Oriented Robot Operation, proposed in a previous paper, creates an abstract level in HRI and it is also included in the framework. This concept is evaluated with exhaustive tests. Results prove that significant improvement in task execution may be achieved and the new system is more usable for operators with less experience with robotics; personnel specific for small and medium enterprises (SMEs.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic (RAL) procedures in general surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Alimoglu, Orhan; Sagiroglu, Julide; Atak, Ibrahim; Kilic, Ali; Eren, Tunc; Caliskan, Mujgan; Bas, Gurhan

2016-09-01

Robotics was introduced in clinical practice more than two decades ago, and it has gained remarkable popularity for a wide variety of laparoscopic procedures. We report our results of robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery (RALS) in the most commonly applied general surgical procedures. Ninety seven patients underwent RALS from 2009 to 2012. Indications for RALS were cholelithiasis, gastric carcinoma, splenic tumors, colorectal carcinoma, benign colorectal diseases, non-toxic nodular goiter and incisional hernia. Records of patients were analyzed for demographic features, intraoperative and postoperative complications and conversion to open surgery. Forty six female and 51 male patients were operated and mean age was 58,4 (range: 25-88). Ninety three out of 97 procedures (96%) were completed robotically, 4 were converted to open surgery and there were 15 postoperative complications. There was no mortality. Wide variety of procedures of general surgery can be managed safely and effectively by RALS. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Multi-function robots with speech interaction and emotion feedback

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hongyu; Lou, Guanting; Ma, Mengchao

2018-03-01

Nowadays, the service robots have been applied in many public circumstances; however, most of them still don’t have the function of speech interaction, especially the function of speech-emotion interaction feedback. To make the robot more humanoid, Arduino microcontroller was used in this study for the speech recognition module and servo motor control module to achieve the functions of the robot’s speech interaction and emotion feedback. In addition, W5100 was adopted for network connection to achieve information transmission via Internet, providing broad application prospects for the robot in the area of Internet of Things (IoT).

Architecture for Multiple Interacting Robot Intelligences

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Richard Alan, II (Inventor)

2008-01-01

An architecture for robot intelligence enables a robot to learn new behaviors and create new behavior sequences autonomously and interact with a dynamically changing environment. Sensory information is mapped onto a Sensory Ego-Sphere (SES) that rapidly identifies important changes in the environment and functions much like short term memory. Behaviors are stored in a database associative memory (DBAM) that creates an active map from the robot's current state to a goal state and functions much like long term memory. A dream state converts recent activities stored in the SES and creates or modifies behaviors in the DBAM.

Preliminary analysis of force-torque measurements for robot-assisted fracture surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Georgilas, Ioannis; Dagnino, Giulio; Tarassoli, Payam; Atkins, Roger; Dogramadzi, Sanja

2015-08-01

Our group at Bristol Robotics Laboratory has been working on a new robotic system for fracture surgery that has been previously reported [1]. The robotic system is being developed for distal femur fractures and features a robot that manipulates the small fracture fragments through small percutaneous incisions and a robot that re-aligns the long bones. The robots controller design relies on accurate and bounded force and position parameters for which we require real surgical data. This paper reports preliminary findings of forces and torques applied during bone and soft tissue manipulation in typical orthopaedic surgery procedures. Using customised orthopaedic surgical tools we have collected data from a range of orthopaedic surgical procedures at Bristol Royal Infirmary, UK. Maximum forces and torques encountered during fracture manipulation which involved proximal femur and soft tissue distraction around it and reduction of neck of femur fractures have been recorded and further analysed in conjunction with accompanying image recordings. Using this data we are establishing a set of technical requirements for creating safe and dynamically stable minimally invasive robot-assisted fracture surgery (RAFS) systems.

Control strategies for effective robot assisted gait rehabilitation: the state of art and future prospects.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Jinghui; Xie, Sheng Quan; Das, Raj; Zhu, Guo L

2014-12-01

A large number of gait rehabilitation robots, together with a variety of control strategies, have been developed and evaluated during the last decade. Initially, control strategies applied to rehabilitation robots were adapted from those applied to traditional industrial robots. However, these strategies cannot optimise effectiveness of gait rehabilitation. As a result, researchers have been investigating control strategies tailored for the needs of rehabilitation. Among these control strategies, assisted-as-needed (AAN) control is one of the most popular research topics in this field. AAN training strategies have gained the theoretical and practical evidence based backup from motor learning principles and clinical studies. Various approaches to AAN training have been proposed and investigated by research groups all around the world. This article presents a review on control algorithms of gait rehabilitation robots to summarise related knowledge and investigate potential trends of development. There are existing review papers on control strategies of rehabilitation robots. The review by Marchal-Crespo and Reinkensmeyer (2009) had a broad cover of control strategies of all kinds of rehabilitation robots. Hussain et al. (2011) had specifically focused on treadmill gait training robots and covered a limited number of control implementations on them. This review article encompasses more detailed information on control strategies for robot assisted gait rehabilitation, but is not limited to treadmill based training. It also investigates the potential to further develop assist-as-needed gait training based on assessments of patients' ability. In this paper, control strategies are generally divided into the trajectory tracking control and AAN control. The review covers these two basic categories, as well as other control algorithm and technologies derived from them, such as biofeedback control. Assessments on human gait ability are also included to investigate how to

Natural Tasking of Robots Based on Human Interaction Cues

Science.gov (United States)

2005-06-01

MIT. • Matthew Marjanovic , researcher, ITA Software. • Brian Scasselatti, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Yale. • Matthew Williamson...2004. 25 [74] Charlie C. Kemp. Shoes as a platform for vision. 7th IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 2004. [75] Matthew Marjanovic ...meso: Simulated muscles for a humanoid robot. Presentation for Humanoid Robotics Group, MIT AI Lab, August 2001. [76] Matthew J. Marjanovic . Teaching

A human-oriented framework for developing assistive service robots.

Science.gov (United States)

McGinn, Conor; Cullinan, Michael F; Culleton, Mark; Kelly, Kevin

2018-04-01

Multipurpose robots that can perform a range of useful tasks have the potential to increase the quality of life for many people living with disabilities. Owing to factors such as high system complexity, as-yet unresolved research questions and current technology limitations, there is a need for effective strategies to coordinate the development process. Integrating established methodologies based on human-centred design and universal design, a framework was formulated to coordinate the robot design process over successive iterations of prototype development. An account is given of how the framework was practically applied to the problem of developing a personal service robot. Application of the framework led to the formation of several design goals which addressed a wide range of identified user needs. The resultant prototype solution, which consisted of several component elements, succeeded in demonstrating the performance stipulated by all of the proposed metrics. Application of the framework resulted in the development of a complex prototype that addressed many aspects of the functional and usability requirements of a personal service robot. Following the process led to several important insights which directly benefit the development of subsequent prototypes. Implications for Rehabilitation This research shows how universal design might be used to formulate usability requirements for assistive service robots. A framework is presented that guides the process of designing service robots in a human-centred way. Through practical application of the framework, a prototype robot system that addressed a range of identified user needs was developed.

The use of socially assistive robots for dementia care.

Science.gov (United States)

Huschilt, Julie; Clune, Laurie

2012-10-01

Innovative solutions for dementia care are required to address the steady rise in adults living with dementia, lack of adequate staffing to provide high-quality dementia care, and the need for family caregivers to provide care for their loved ones in the home. This article provides an overview of the use of socially assistive robots (SARs) to offer support as therapists, companions, and educators for people living with dementia. Social, ethical, and legal challenges associated with the use of robotic technology in patient care and implications for the use of SARs by nurses are discussed. These items considered, the authors conclude that SARs should be considered as a viable way to assist people living with dementia to maintain their highest possible level of independence, enhance their quality of life, and provide support to overburdened family caregivers. Further research is needed to evaluate the merits of this technological approach in the care of adults with dementia. Copyright 2012, SLACK Incorporated.

Intelligent navigation and accurate positioning of an assist robot in indoor environments

Science.gov (United States)

Hua, Bin; Rama, Endri; Capi, Genci; Jindai, Mitsuru; Tsuri, Yosuke

2017-12-01

Intact robot's navigation and accurate positioning in indoor environments are still challenging tasks. Especially in robot applications, assisting disabled and/or elderly people in museums/art gallery environments. In this paper, we present a human-like navigation method, where the neural networks control the wheelchair robot to reach the goal location safely, by imitating the supervisor's motions, and positioning in the intended location. In a museum similar environment, the mobile robot starts navigation from various positions, and uses a low-cost camera to track the target picture, and a laser range finder to make a safe navigation. Results show that the neural controller with the Conjugate Gradient Backpropagation training algorithm gives a robust response to guide the mobile robot accurately to the goal position.

User-centric design of a personal assistance robot (FRASIER) for active aging.

Science.gov (United States)

Padir, Taşkin; Skorinko, Jeanine; Dimitrov, Velin

2015-01-01

We present our preliminary results from the design process for developing the Worcester Polytechnic Institute's personal assistance robot, FRASIER, as an intelligent service robot for enabling active aging. The robot capabilities include vision-based object detection, tracking the user and help with carrying heavy items such as grocery bags or cafeteria trays. This work-in-progress report outlines our motivation and approach to developing the next generation of service robots for the elderly. Our main contribution in this paper is the development of a set of specifications based on the adopted user-centered design process, and realization of the prototype system designed to meet these specifications.

Multidisciplinary approach for developing a new robotic system for domiciliary assistance to elderly people.

Science.gov (United States)

Cavallo, F; Aquilano, M; Bonaccorsi, M; Mannari, I; Carrozza, M C; Dario, P

2011-01-01

This paper aims to show the effectiveness of a (inter / multi)disciplinary team, based on the technology developers, elderly care organizations, and designers, in developing the ASTRO robotic system for domiciliary assistance to elderly people. The main issues presented in this work concern the improvement of robot's behavior by means of a smart sensor network able to share information with the robot for localization and navigation, and the design of the robot's appearance and functionalities by means of a substantial analysis of users' requirements and attitude to robotic technology to improve acceptability and usability.

Admittance-Based Upper Limb Robotic Active and Active-Assistive Movements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristóbal Ochoa Luna

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents two rehabilitation schemes for patients with upper limb impairments. The first is an active-assistive scheme based on the trajectory tracking of predefined paths in Cartesian space. In it, the system allows for an adjustable degree of variation with respect to ideal tracking. The amount of variation is determined through an admittance function that depends on the opposition forces exerted on the system by the user, due to possible impairments. The coefficients of the function allow the adjustment of the degree of assistance the robot will provide in order to complete the target trajectory. The second scheme corresponds to active movements in a constrained space. Here, the same admittance function is applied; however, in this case, it is unattached to a predefined trajectory and instead connected to one generated in real time, according to the user's intended movements. This allows the user to move freely with the robot in order to track a given path. The free movement is bounded through the use of virtual walls that do not allow users to exceed certain limits. A human-machine interface was developed to guide the robot's user.

Ocular interaction with robots: an aid to the disabled

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azorin, J.M.; Ianez, E.; Fernandez Jover, E.; Sabater, J.M.

2010-01-01

This paper describes a technique to control remotely a robot arm from his eyes movement. This method will help disabled people to control a robot in order to aid them to perform tasks in their daily lives. The electrooculography technique (EOG) is used to detect the eyes movement. EOG registers the potential difference between the cornea and the retina using electrodes. The eyes movement is used to control a remote robot arm of 6 degrees of freedom. First, the paper introduces several eye movement techniques to interact with devices, focusing on the EOG one. Then, the paper describes the system that allows interacting with a robot through the eyes movement. Finally, the paper shows some experimental results related to the robot controlled by the EOG-based interface. (Author).

Social Moments: A Perspective on Interaction for Social Robotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gautier Durantin

2017-06-01

Full Text Available During a social interaction, events that happen at different timescales can indicate social meanings. In order to socially engage with humans, robots will need to be able to comprehend and manipulate the social meanings that are associated with these events. We define social moments as events that occur within a social interaction and which can signify a pragmatic or semantic meaning. A challenge for social robots is recognizing social moments that occur on short timescales, which can be on the order of 102 ms. In this perspective, we propose that understanding the range and roles of social moments in a social interaction and implementing social micro-abilities—the abilities required to engage in a timely manner through social moments—is a key challenge for the field of human robot interaction (HRI to enable effective social interactions and social robots. In particular, it is an open question how social moments can acquire their associated meanings. Practically, the implementation of these social micro-abilities presents engineering challenges for the fields of HRI and social robotics, including performing processing of sensors and using actuators to meet fast timescales. We present a key challenge of social moments as integration of social stimuli across multiple timescales and modalities. We present the neural basis for human comprehension of social moments and review current literature related to social moments and social micro-abilities. We discuss the requirements for social micro-abilities, how these abilities can enable more natural social robots, and how to address the engineering challenges associated with social moments.

Robot-assisted single port radical nephrectomy and cholecystectomy: description and technical aspects.

Science.gov (United States)

Mota Filho, Francisco Hidelbrando Alves; Sávio, Luis Felipe; Sakata, Rafael Eiji; Ivanovic, Renato Fidelis; da Silva, Marco Antonio Nunes; Maia, Ronaldo; Passerotti, Carlo

2018-01-01

Robot-Assisted Single Site Radical Nephrectomy (RASS-RN) has been reported by surgeons in Europe and United States (1-3). To our best knowledge this video presents the first RASS-RN with concomitant cholecystectomy performed in Latin America. A 66 year-old renal transplant male due to chronic renal failure presented with an incidental 1.3cm nodule in the upper pole of the right kidney. In addition, symptomatic gallbladder stones were detected. Patient was placed in modified flank position. Multichannel single port device was placed using Hassan's technique through a 3cm supra-umbilical incision. Standard radical nephrectomy and cholecystectomy were made using na 8.5mm camera, two 5mm robotic arms and an assistant 5mm access. Surgery time and estimated blood loss were 208 minutes and 100mL, respectively. Patient did well and was discharged within less than 48 hours, without complications. Pathology report showed benign renomedullary tumor of interstitial cells and chronic cholecystitis. Robotic technology improves ergonomics, gives better precision and enhances ability to approach complex surgeries. Robot-assisted Single Port aims to reduce the morbidity of multiple trocar placements while maintaining the advantages of robotic surgery (2). Limitations include the use of semi-rigid instruments providing less degree of motion and limited space leading to crash between instruments. On the other hand, it is possible to perform complex and concomitant surgeries with just one incision. RASS-RN seems to be safe and feasible option for selected cases. Studies should be performed to better understand the results using single port technique in Urology. Copyright® by the International Brazilian Journal of Urology.

Robot-assisted single port radical nephrectomy and cholecystectomy: description and technical aspects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco Hidelbrando Alves Mota Filho

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Introduction Robot-Assisted Single Site Radical Nephrectomy (RASS-RN has been reported by surgeons in Europe and United States (1–3. To our best knowledge this video presents the first RASS-RN with concomitant cholecystectomy performed in Latin America. Case A 66 year-old renal transplant male due to chronic renal failure presented with an incidental 1.3cm nodule in the upper pole of the right kidney. In addition, symptomatic gallbladder stones were detected. Results Patient was placed in modified flank position. Multichannel single port device was placed using Hassan's technique through a 3 cm supra-umbilical incision. Standard radical nephrectomy and cholecystectomy were made using an 8.5mm camera, two 5mm robotic arms and an assistant 5mm access. Surgery time and estimated blood loss were 208 minutes and 100mL, respectively. Patient did well and was discharged within less than 48 hours, without complications. Pathology report showed benign renomedullary tumor of interstitial cells and chronic cholecystitis. Discussion Robotic technology improves ergonomics, gives better precision and enhances ability to approach complex surgeries. Robot-assisted Single Port aims to reduce the morbidity of multiple trocar placements while maintaining the advantages of robotic surgery (2. Limitations include the use of semi-rigid instruments providing less degree of motion and limited space leading to crash between instruments. On the other hand, it is possible to perform complex and concomitant surgeries with just one incision. Conclusion RASS-RN seems to be safe and feasible option for selected cases. Studies should be performed to better understand the results using single port technique in Urology.

Robots Spur Software That Lends a Hand

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

While building a robot to assist astronauts in space, Johnson Space Center worked with partners to develop robot reasoning and interaction technology. The partners created Robonaut 1, which led to Robonaut 2, and the work also led to patents now held by Universal Robotics in Nashville, Tennessee. The NASA-derived technology is available for use in warehousing, mining, and more.

Interactive animated displayed of man-controlled and autonomous robots

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crane, C.D. III; Duffy, J.

1986-01-01

An interactive computer graphics program has been developed which allows an operator to more readily control robot motions in two distinct modes; viz., man-controlled and autonomous. In man-controlled mode, the robot is guided by a joystick or similar device. As the robot moves, actual joint angle information is measured and supplied to a graphics system which accurately duplicates the robot motion. Obstacles are placed in the actual and animated workspace and the operator is warned of imminent collisions by sight and sound via the graphics system. Operation of the system in man-controlled mode is shown. In autonomous mode, a collision-free path between specified points is obtained by previewing robot motions on the graphics system. Once a satisfactory path is selected, the path characteristics are transmitted to the actual robot and the motion is executed. The telepresence system developed at the University of Florida has been successful in demonstrating that the concept of controlling a robot manipulator with the aid of an interactive computer graphics system is feasible and practical. The clarity of images coupled with real-time interaction and real-time determination of imminent collision with obstacles has resulted in improved operator performance. Furthermore, the ability for an operator to preview and supervise autonomous operations is a significant attribute when operating in a hazardous environment

Current status of robotic stroke rehabilitation and opportunities for a cyber-physically assisted upper limb stroke rehabilitation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, C.; Rusak, Z.; Horvath, I.; Ji, L.; Hou, Y.

2014-01-01

In the last two decades, robotics-assisted stroke reha-bilitation has been wide-spread, in particular for movement rehabilitation of upper limbs. Several studies have reported on the clinical effectiveness of this kind of therapy. The results of these studies show that robot assisted therapy can be

Human-robot interaction assessment using dynamic engagement profiles

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Drimus, Alin; Poltorak, Nicole

2017-01-01

-1] interval, where 0 represents disengaged and 1 fully engaged. The network shows a good accuracy at recognizing the engagement state of humans given positive emotions. A time based analysis of interaction experiments between small humanoid robots and humans provides time series of engagement estimates, which...... and is applicable to humanoid robotics as well as other related contexts.......This paper addresses the use of convolutional neural networks for image analysis resulting in an engagement metric that can be used to assess the quality of human robot interactions. We propose a method based on a pretrained convolutional network able to map emotions onto a continuous [0...

The Creation of a Multi-Human, Multi-Robot Interactive Jam Session

OpenAIRE

Weinberg, Gil; Blosser, Brian; Mallikarjuna, Trishul; Raman, Aparna

2009-01-01

This paper presents an interactive and improvisational jam session, including human players and two robotic musicians. The project was developed in an effort to create novel and inspiring music through human-robot collaboration. The jam session incorporates Shimon, a newly-developed socially-interactive robotic marimba player, and Haile, a perceptual robotic percussionist developed in previous work. The paper gives an overview of the musical perception modules, adaptive improvisation modes an...

Robot-assisted training of the kinesthetic sense: enhancing proprioception after stroke.

Science.gov (United States)

De Santis, Dalia; Zenzeri, Jacopo; Casadio, Maura; Masia, Lorenzo; Riva, Assunta; Morasso, Pietro; Squeri, Valentina

2014-01-01

Proprioception has a crucial role in promoting or hindering motor learning. In particular, an intact position sense strongly correlates with the chances of recovery after stroke. A great majority of neurological patients present both motor dysfunctions and impairments in kinesthesia, but traditional robot and virtual reality training techniques focus either in recovering motor functions or in assessing proprioceptive deficits. An open challenge is to implement effective and reliable tests and training protocols for proprioception that go beyond the mere position sense evaluation and exploit the intrinsic bidirectionality of the kinesthetic sense, which refers to both sense of position and sense of movement. Modulated haptic interaction has a leading role in promoting sensorimotor integration, and it is a natural way to enhance volitional effort. Therefore, we designed a preliminary clinical study to test a new proprioception-based motor training technique for augmenting kinesthetic awareness via haptic feedback. The feedback was provided by a robotic manipulandum and the test involved seven chronic hemiparetic subjects over 3 weeks. The protocol included evaluation sessions that consisted of a psychometric estimate of the subject's kinesthetic sensation, and training sessions, in which the subject executed planar reaching movements in the absence of vision and under a minimally assistive haptic guidance made by sequences of graded force pulses. The bidirectional haptic interaction between the subject and the robot was optimally adapted to each participant in order to achieve a uniform task difficulty over the workspace. All the subjects consistently improved in the perceptual scores as a consequence of training. Moreover, they could minimize the level of haptic guidance in time. Results suggest that the proposed method is effective in enhancing kinesthetic acuity, but the level of impairment may affect the ability of subjects to retain their improvement in time.

Robot-assisted training of the kinesthetic sense: enhancing proprioception after stroke

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dalia eDe Santis

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Proprioception has a crucial role in promoting or hindering motor learning. In particular, an intact position sense strongly correlates with the chances of recovery after stroke. A great majority of neurological patients present both motor dysfunctions and impairments in kinesthesia, but traditional robot and virtual reality training techniques focus either in recovering motor functions or in assessing proprioceptive deficits. An open challenge is to implement effective and reliable tests and training protocols for proprioception that go beyond the mere position sense evaluation and exploit the intrinsic bidirectionality of the kinesthetic sense, which refers to both sense of position and sense of movement. Modulated haptic interaction has a leading role in promoting sensorimotor integration and it is a natural way to enhance volitional effort. Therefore, we designed a preliminary clinical study to test a new proprioception-based motor training technique for augmenting kinesthetic awareness via haptic feedback. The feedback was provided by a robotic manipulandum and the test involved 7 chronic hemiparetic subjects over three weeks. The protocol included evaluation sessions, that consisted of a psychometric estimate of the subject’s kinesthetic sensation, and training sessions, in which the subject executed planar reaching movements in the absence of vision and under a minimally assistive haptic guidance made by sequences of graded force pulses. The bidirectional haptic interaction between the subject and the robot was optimally adapted to each participant in order to achieve a uniform task difficulty over the workspace. All the subjects consistently improved in the perceptual scores as a consequence of training. Moreover, they could minimize the level of haptic guidance in time. Results suggest that the proposed method is effective in enhancing kinesthetic acuity, but the level of impairment may affect the ability of subjects to retain their

Consistency of performance of robot-assisted surgical tasks in virtual reality.

Science.gov (United States)

Suh, I H; Siu, K-C; Mukherjee, M; Monk, E; Oleynikov, D; Stergiou, N

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate consistency of performance of robot-assisted surgical tasks in a virtual reality environment. Eight subjects performed two surgical tasks, bimanual carrying and needle passing, with both the da Vinci surgical robot and a virtual reality equivalent environment. Nonlinear analysis was utilized to evaluate consistency of performance by calculating the regularity and the amount of divergence in the movement trajectories of the surgical instrument tips. Our results revealed that movement patterns for both training tasks were statistically similar between the two environments. Consistency of performance as measured by nonlinear analysis could be an appropriate methodology to evaluate the complexity of the training tasks between actual and virtual environments and assist in developing better surgical training programs.

Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

2015-01-01

Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children’s social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a “mental model” of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot’s performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot’s bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance. PMID:26422143

Model-based acquisition and analysis of multimodal interactions for improving human-robot interaction

OpenAIRE

Renner, Patrick; Pfeiffer, Thies

2014-01-01

For solving complex tasks cooperatively in close interaction with robots, they need to understand natural human communication. To achieve this, robots could benefit from a deeper understanding of the processes that humans use for successful communication. Such skills can be studied by investigating human face-to-face interactions in complex tasks. In our work the focus lies on shared-space interactions in a path planning task and thus 3D gaze directions and hand movements are of particular in...

Modeling and Simulation for Exploring Human-Robot Team Interaction Requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dudenhoeffer, Donald Dean; Bruemmer, David Jonathon; Davis, Midge Lee

2001-12-01

Small-sized and micro-robots will soon be available for deployment in large-scale forces. Consequently, the ability of a human operator to coordinate and interact with largescale robotic forces is of great interest. This paper describes the ways in which modeling and simulation have been used to explore new possibilities for human-robot interaction. The paper also discusses how these explorations have fed implementation of a unified set of command and control concepts for robotic force deployment. Modeling and simulation can play a major role in fielding robot teams in actual missions. While live testing is preferred, limitations in terms of technology, cost, and time often prohibit extensive experimentation with physical multi-robot systems. Simulation provides insight, focuses efforts, eliminates large areas of the possible solution space, and increases the quality of actual testing.

Redefining robot based technologies for elderly people assistance: a survey

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pagliarini, Luigi; Lund, Henrik Hautop

2016-01-01

, learning-speed, efficiency, short and long-term effect, active vs. passive, etc. We do so by showing the most important existing examples, and by taking into account all the possible factors that might help researchers when thinking of developing appropriate technologies for elderly care, as well as......, for their relative assistance personnel. Indeed, while in rehabilitation robotics, a major role is played by the human-machine interface (HMI) used to gather the patient's intent from biological signals, and convert them into control signals for the robotic artefacts, surprisingly, decades of research have not yet...

The Evolution of Image-Free Robotic Assistance in Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty.

Science.gov (United States)

Lonner, Jess H; Moretti, Vincent M

2016-01-01

Semiautonomous robotic technology has been introduced to optimize accuracy of bone preparation, implant positioning, and soft tissue balance in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA), with the expectation that there will be a resultant improvement in implant durability and survivorship. Currently, roughly one-fifth of UKAs in the US are being performed with robotic assistance, and it is anticipated that there will be substantial growth in market penetration of robotics over the next decade. First-generation robotic technology improved substantially implant position compared to conventional methods; however, high capital costs, uncertainty regarding the value of advanced technologies, and the need for preoperative computed tomography (CT) scans were barriers to broader adoption. Newer image-free semiautonomous robotic technology optimizes both implant position and soft tissue balance, without the need for preoperative CT scans and with pricing and portability that make it suitable for use in an ambulatory surgery center setting, where approximately 40% of these systems are currently being utilized. This article will review the robotic experience for UKA, including rationale, system descriptions, and outcomes.

A Review of Verbal and Non-Verbal Human-Robot Interactive Communication

OpenAIRE

Mavridis, Nikolaos

2014-01-01

In this paper, an overview of human-robot interactive communication is presented, covering verbal as well as non-verbal aspects of human-robot interaction. Following a historical introduction, and motivation towards fluid human-robot communication, ten desiderata are proposed, which provide an organizational axis both of recent as well as of future research on human-robot communication. Then, the ten desiderata are examined in detail, culminating to a unifying discussion, and a forward-lookin...

A Preliminary Study of Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Terrence; Flueckiger, Lorenzo; Kunz, Clayton; Lees, David; Schreiner, John; Siegel, Michael; Hiatt, Laura M.; Nourbakhsh, Illah; Simmons, Reid; Ambrose, Robert

2006-01-01

The Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction (P2P-HRI) project is developing techniques to improve task coordination and collaboration between human and robot partners. Our work is motivated by the need to develop effective human-robot teams for space mission operations. A central element of our approach is creating dialogue and interaction tools that enable humans and robots to flexibly support one another. In order to understand how this approach can influence task performance, we recently conducted a series of tests simulating a lunar construction task with a human-robot team. In this paper, we describe the tests performed, discuss our initial results, and analyze the effect of intervention on task performance.

Moving android: on social robots and body-in-interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Alac, Morana

2009-08-01

Social robotics studies embodied technologies designed for social interaction. This paper examines the implied idea of embodiment using as data a sequence in which practitioners of social robotics are involved in designing a robot's movement. The moments of learning and work in the laboratory enact the social body as material, dynamic, and multiparty: the body-in-interaction. In describing subject-object reconfigurations, the paper explores how the well-known ideas of extending the body with instruments can be applied to a technology designed to function as our surrogate.

The role of visual and direct force feedback in robotics-assisted mitral valve annuloplasty.

Science.gov (United States)

Currie, Maria E; Talasaz, Ali; Rayman, Reiza; Chu, Michael W A; Kiaii, Bob; Peters, Terry; Trejos, Ana Luisa; Patel, Rajni

2017-09-01

The objective of this work was to determine the effect of both direct force feedback and visual force feedback on the amount of force applied to mitral valve tissue during ex vivo robotics-assisted mitral valve annuloplasty. A force feedback-enabled master-slave surgical system was developed to provide both visual and direct force feedback during robotics-assisted cardiac surgery. This system measured the amount of force applied by novice and expert surgeons to cardiac tissue during ex vivo mitral valve annuloplasty repair. The addition of visual (2.16 ± 1.67), direct (1.62 ± 0.86), or both visual and direct force feedback (2.15 ± 1.08) resulted in lower mean maximum force applied to mitral valve tissue while suturing compared with no force feedback (3.34 ± 1.93 N; P forces on cardiac tissue during robotics-assisted mitral valve annuloplasty suturing, force feedback may be required. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Muecas: A Multi-Sensor Robotic Head for Affective Human Robot Interaction and Imitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felipe Cid

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a multi-sensor humanoid robotic head for human robot interaction. The design of the robotic head, Muecas, is based on ongoing research on the mechanisms of perception and imitation of human expressions and emotions. These mechanisms allow direct interaction between the robot and its human companion through the different natural language modalities: speech, body language and facial expressions. The robotic head has 12 degrees of freedom, in a human-like configuration, including eyes, eyebrows, mouth and neck, and has been designed and built entirely by IADeX (Engineering, Automation and Design of Extremadura and RoboLab. A detailed description of its kinematics is provided along with the design of the most complex controllers. Muecas can be directly controlled by FACS (Facial Action Coding System, the de facto standard for facial expression recognition and synthesis. This feature facilitates its use by third party platforms and encourages the development of imitation and of goal-based systems. Imitation systems learn from the user, while goal-based ones use planning techniques to drive the user towards a final desired state. To show the flexibility and reliability of the robotic head, the paper presents a software architecture that is able to detect, recognize, classify and generate facial expressions in real time using FACS. This system has been implemented using the robotics framework, RoboComp, which provides hardware-independent access to the sensors in the head. Finally, the paper presents experimental results showing the real-time functioning of the whole system, including recognition and imitation of human facial expressions.

Development of a multimode navigation system for an assistive robotics project

OpenAIRE

Cherubini , Andrea; Oriolo , G; Macri , F; Aloise , F; Babiloni , F; Cincotti , F; Mattia , D

2007-01-01

International audience; Assistive technology is an emerging area where robotic devices can be used to strengthen the residual abilities of individuals with motor disabilities or to help them achieve independence in the activities of daily living. This paper deals with a project aimed at designing a system that provides remote control of home-installed appliances, including the Sony AIBO, a commercial mobile robot. The development of the project is described by focusing on the design of the ro...

Robotic-assisted transperitoneal radical prostatectomy in a patient with pelvic kidney

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rabah, Danny M.; Alyami, Fahad A.

2008-01-01

Robots are increasingly utilized in urology, due to their favorable performance characteristics especially in prostatectomy and pyeloplasty. However, preoperative diagnosis of urogenital congenital anomalies and preoperative planning are important aspects to be considered. The presence of ectopic pelvic kidney is a challenge for the surgeon to perform robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) without injury to the pelvic kidney (PC) or its blood supply. We report our experience of performing RARP in a patient with a PK. (author)

Human capital gains associated with robotic assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty in children compared to open pyeloplasty.

Science.gov (United States)

Behan, James W; Kim, Steve S; Dorey, Frederick; De Filippo, Roger E; Chang, Andy Y; Hardy, Brian E; Koh, Chester J

2011-10-01

Robotic assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty is an emerging, minimally invasive alternative to open pyeloplasty in children for ureteropelvic junction obstruction. The procedure is associated with smaller incisions and shorter hospital stays. To our knowledge previous outcome analyses have not included human capital calculations, especially regarding loss of parental workdays. We compared perioperative factors in patients who underwent robotic assisted laparoscopic and open pyeloplasty at a single institution, especially in regard to human capital changes, in an institutional cost analysis. A total of 44 patients 2 years old or older from a single institution underwent robotic assisted (37) or open (7) pyeloplasty from 2008 to 2010. We retrospectively reviewed the charts to collect demographic and perioperative data. The human capital approach was used to calculate parental productivity losses. Patients who underwent robotic assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty had a significantly shorter average hospital length of stay (1.6 vs 2.8 days, p human capital gains, eg decreased lost parental wages, and lower hospitalization expenses. Future comparative outcome analyses in children should include financial factors such as human capital loss, which can be especially important for families with young children. Copyright © 2011 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Robot-assisted placement of depth electrodes along the long Axis of the amygdalohippocampal complex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alvin Y. Chan

2016-12-01

Conclusions: We have developed the Robot-Assisted Lateral Transoccipital Approach (RALTA, which is an advantageous technique for placing bilateral amygdalohippocampal depth electrodes using robotic guidance. Benefits of this technique include fewer electrodes required per patient and ease of positioning compared with seated or prone positioning.

Monitoring of Robot Assisted Polishing through parameters of acoustic emission

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lazarev, Ruslan; Top, Søren; Bilberg, Arne

The polishing process is essential for the surface generation of machine tooling components in advanced manufacturing. While robot assisted polishing is faster and more consistent than manual polishing, it can still consume a significant part of ma- chining time and operator presence time...

Evolution of upper limb kinematics four years after subacute robot-assisted rehabilitation in stroke patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Pila, Ophélie; Duret, Christophe; Gracies, Jean-Michel; Francisco, Gerard E; Bayle, Nicolas; Hutin, Émilie

2018-04-25

To assess functional status and robot-based kinematic measures four years after subacute robot-assisted rehabilitation in hemiparesis. Twenty-two patients with stroke-induced hemiparesis underwent a ≥3-month upper limb combined program of robot-assisted and occupational therapy from two months post-stroke, and received community-based therapy after discharge. Four years later, 19 (86%) participated in this follow-up study. Assessments 2, 5 and 54 months post-stroke included Fugl-Meyer (FM), Modified Frenchay Scale (MFS, at Month 54) and robot-based kinematic measures of targeting tasks in three directions, north, paretic and non-paretic: distance covered, velocity, accuracy (root mean square (RMS) error from straight line) and smoothness (number of velocity peaks; upward changes in accuracy and smoothness represent worsening). Analysis was stratified by FM score at two months: ≥17 (Group 1) or Kinematic changes (three directions pooled) were: distance -1[-17;2]% (ns); velocity, -8[-32;28]% (ns); accuracy, +6[-13;98]% (ns); smoothness, +44[-6;126]% (p robot-assisted upper limb training during subacute post-stroke phase, movement kinematics deteriorated despite community-based therapy, especially in more severely impaired patients. EudraCT 2016-005121-36. Registration: 2016-12-20. Date of enrolment of the first participant to the trial: 2009-11-24.

The value of contrast-enhanced laparoscopic ultrasound during robotic-assisted surgery for primary colorectal cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ellebaek, Signe Bremholm; Fristrup, Claus Wilki; Pless, Torsten

2018-01-01

AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the potential clinical value of contrast enhanced laparoscopic ultrasonography (CE-LUS) as a screening modality for liver metastases during robotic assisted surgery for primary colorectal cancer (CRC). METHOD: A prospective, descriptive (feasibility) study...... including 50 consecutive patients scheduled for robotic assisted surgery for primary CRC. CE-LUS was performed by 2 experienced specialists. Only patients without metastatic disease were included. Follow-up was obtained with contrast-enhanced CT imaging at 3 and 12 months postoperatively. RESULTS: Fifty......-up revealed no liver metastasis in any of the patients. CONCLUSION: CE-LUS did not increase the detection rate of occult liver metastasis during robotic assisted primary CRC surgery. The use of CE-LUS as a screening modality for detection of liver metastasis cannot be recommended based on this study...

Assistive humanoid robot MARKO: development of the neck mechanism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Penčić Marko

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the development of neck mechanism for humanoid robots. The research was conducted within the project which is developing a humanoid robot Marko that represents assistive apparatus in the physical therapy for children with cerebral palsy.There are two basic ways for the neck realization of the robots. The first is based on low backlash mechanisms that have high stiffness and the second one based on the viscoelastic elements having variable flexibility. We suggest low backlash differential gear mechanism that requires small actuators. Based on the kinematic-dynamic requirements a dynamic model of the robots upper body is formed. Dynamic simulation for several positions of the robot was performed and the driving torques of neck mechanism are determined.Realized neck has 2 DOFs and enables movements in the direction of flexion-extension 100°, rotation ±90° and the combination of these two movements. It consists of a differential mechanism with three spiral bevel gears of which the two are driving and are identical, and the third one which is driven gear to which the robot head is attached. Power transmission and motion from the actuators to the input links of the differential mechanism is realized with two parallel placed gear mechanisms that are identical.Neck mechanism has high carrying capacity and reliability, high efficiency, low backlash that provide high positioning accuracy and repeatability of movements, compact design and small mass and dimensions.

Does robot-assisted gait training ameliorate gait abnormalities in multiple sclerosis? A pilot randomized-control trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Straudi, S; Benedetti, M G; Venturini, E; Manca, M; Foti, C; Basaglia, N

2013-01-01

Gait disorders are common in multiple sclerosis (MS) and lead to a progressive reduction of function and quality of life. Test the effects of robot-assisted gait rehabilitation in MS subjects through a pilot randomized-controlled study. We enrolled MS subjects with Expanded Disability Status Scale scores within 4.5-6.5. The experimental group received 12 robot-assisted gait training sessions over 6 weeks. The control group received the same amount of conventional physiotherapy. Outcomes measures were both biomechanical assessment of gait, including kinematics and spatio-temporal parameters, and clinical test of walking endurance (six-minute walk test) and mobility (Up and Go Test). 16 subjects (n = 8 experimental group, n = 8 control group) were included in the final analysis. At baseline the two groups were similar in all variables, except for step length. Data showed walking endurance, as well as spatio-temporal gait parameters improvements after robot-assisted gait training. Pelvic antiversion and reduced hip extension during terminal stance ameliorated after aforementioned intervention. Robot-assisted gait training seems to be effective in increasing walking competency in MS subjects. Moreover, it could be helpful in restoring the kinematic of the hip and pelvis.

Robot Tracking of Human Subjects in Field Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Graham, Jeffrey; Shillcutt, Kimberly

2003-01-01

Future planetary exploration will involve both humans and robots. Understanding and improving their interaction is a main focus of research in the Intelligent Systems Branch at NASA's Johnson Space Center. By teaming intelligent robots with astronauts on surface extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), safety and productivity can be improved. The EVA Robotic Assistant (ERA) project was established to study the issues of human-robot teams, to develop a testbed robot to assist space-suited humans in exploration tasks, and to experimentally determine the effectiveness of an EVA assistant robot. A companion paper discusses the ERA project in general, its history starting with ASRO (Astronaut-Rover project), and the results of recent field tests in Arizona. This paper focuses on one aspect of the research, robot tracking, in greater detail: the software architecture and algorithms. The ERA robot is capable of moving towards and/or continuously following mobile or stationary targets or sequences of targets. The contributions made by this research include how the low-level pose data is assembled, normalized and communicated, how the tracking algorithm was generalized and implemented, and qualitative performance reports from recent field tests.

Robotic Hand-Assisted Training for Spinal Cord Injury Driven by Myoelectric Pattern Recognition: A Case Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Zhiyuan; Tong, Kai-Yu; Shin, Henry; Stampas, Argyrios; Zhou, Ping

2017-10-01

A 51-year-old man with an incomplete C6 spinal cord injury sustained 26 yrs ago attended twenty 2-hr visits over 10 wks for robot-assisted hand training driven by myoelectric pattern recognition. In each visit, his right hand was assisted to perform motions by an exoskeleton robot, while the robot was triggered by his own motion intentions. The hand robot was designed for this study, which can perform six kinds of motions, including hand closing/opening; thumb, index finger, and middle finger closing/opening; and middle, ring, and little fingers closing/opening. After the training, his grip force increased from 13.5 to 19.6 kg, his pinch force remained the same (5.0 kg), his score of Box and Block test increased from 32 to 39, and his score from the Graded Redefined Assessment of Strength, Sensibility, and Prehension test Part 4.B increased from 22 to 24. He accomplished the tasks in the Graded Redefined Assessment of Strength, Sensibility, and Prehension test Part 4.B 28.8% faster on average. The results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of robot-assisted training driven by myoelectric pattern recognition after spinal cord injury.

Social robotics to help children with autism in their interactions through imitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pennazio Valentina

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article aims to reflect on the main variables that make social robotics efficient in an educational and rehabilitative intervention. Social robotics is based on imitation, and the study is designed for children affected by profound autism, aiming for the development of their social interactions. Existing research, at the national and international levels, shows how children with autism can interact more easily with a robotic companion rather than a human peer, considering its less complex and more predictable actions. This contribution also highlights how using robotic platforms helps in teaching children with autism basic social abilities, imitation, communication and interaction; this encourages them to transfer the learned abilities to human interactions with both adults and peers, through human–robot imitative modelling. The results of a pilot study conducted in a kindergarten school in the Liguria region are presented. The study included applying a robotic system, at first in a dyadic child–robot relation, then in a triadic one that also included another child, with the aim of eliciting social and imitative abilities in a child with profound autism.

An Experimental Study of Embodied Interaction and Human Perception of Social Presence for Interactive Robots in Public Settings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth Ann; Heath, Damith; Vlachos, Evgenios

2018-01-01

The human perception of cognitive robots as social depends on many factors, including those that do not necessarily pertain to a robot’s cognitive functioning. Experience Design offers a useful framework for evaluating when participants interact with robots as products or tools and when they regard...... them as social actors. This study describes a between-participants experiment conducted at a science museum, where visitors were invited to play a game of noughts and crosses with a Baxter robot. The goal is to foster meaningful interactions that promote engagement between the human and robot...... in a museum context. Using an Experience Design framework, we tested the robot in three different conditions to better understand which factors contribute to the perception of robots as social. The experiment also outlines best practices for conducting human-robot interaction research in museum exhibitions...

Interactions between Humans and Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vlachos, Evgenios; Schärfe, Henrik

2013-01-01

), and explains the relationships and dependencies that exist between them. The four main factors that define the properties of a robot, and therefore the interaction, are distributed in two dimensions: (1) Intelligence (Control - Autonomy), and (2) Perspective (Tool - Medium). Based on these factors, we...

Robotic-Assisted Live Donor Ileal Segmentectomy for Intestinal Transplantation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guosheng Wu, MD, PhD

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Background. Every effort should be made to optimize surgical techniques and to minimize potential morbidity rates associated with live donor operations. Advances in a minimally invasive approach by robotic surgery to donor nephrectomy have raised the possibility of applying this technique to live donor bowel resections for intestinal transplantation. Methods. We report the first 5 consecutive cases of a robotic-assisted live donor ileal segmentectomy. We describe the technical aspects of the procedure, discuss the rationale for considering this option, and evaluate potential advantages of this approach. Results. We found that this new approach is associated with less postoperative discomfort, a shorter hospital length of stay, and a faster recovery of bowel function compared to our previous open surgery. Conclusions. Our initial experience suggests that robotic surgery is a safe and feasible procedure for live donor ileal resection for intestinal transplantation and is a useful alternative to conventional open surgery.

Intrinsic interactive reinforcement learning - Using error-related potentials for real world human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Su Kyoung; Kirchner, Elsa Andrea; Stefes, Arne; Kirchner, Frank

2017-12-14

Reinforcement learning (RL) enables robots to learn its optimal behavioral strategy in dynamic environments based on feedback. Explicit human feedback during robot RL is advantageous, since an explicit reward function can be easily adapted. However, it is very demanding and tiresome for a human to continuously and explicitly generate feedback. Therefore, the development of implicit approaches is of high relevance. In this paper, we used an error-related potential (ErrP), an event-related activity in the human electroencephalogram (EEG), as an intrinsically generated implicit feedback (rewards) for RL. Initially we validated our approach with seven subjects in a simulated robot learning scenario. ErrPs were detected online in single trial with a balanced accuracy (bACC) of 91%, which was sufficient to learn to recognize gestures and the correct mapping between human gestures and robot actions in parallel. Finally, we validated our approach in a real robot scenario, in which seven subjects freely chose gestures and the real robot correctly learned the mapping between gestures and actions (ErrP detection (90% bACC)). In this paper, we demonstrated that intrinsically generated EEG-based human feedback in RL can successfully be used to implicitly improve gesture-based robot control during human-robot interaction. We call our approach intrinsic interactive RL.

Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction for Space Exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Terrence; Nourbakhsh, Illah

2004-01-01

NASA has embarked on a long-term program to develop human-robot systems for sustained, affordable space exploration. To support this mission, we are working to improve human-robot interaction and performance on planetary surfaces. Rather than building robots that function as glorified tools, our focus is to enable humans and robots to work as partners and peers. In this paper. we describe our approach, which includes contextual dialogue, cognitive modeling, and metrics-based field testing.

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy: initial experience in Brazil and a review of the literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlo Camargo Passerotti

2012-02-01

Full Text Available CONTEXT AND PURPOSE: Partial nephrectomy has become the standard of care for renal tumors less than 4 cm in diameter. Controversy still exists, however, regarding the best surgical approach, especially when minimally invasive techniques are taken into account. Robotic-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (RALPN has emerged as a promising technique that helps surgeons achieve the standards of open partial nephrectomy care while offering a minimally invasive approach. The objective of the present study was to describe our initial experience with robotic-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy and extensively review the pertinent literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between August 2009 and February 2010, eight consecutive selected patients with contrast enhancing renal masses observed by CT were submitted to RALPN in a private institution. In addition, we collected information on the patients' demographics, preoperative tumor characteristics and detailed operative, postoperative and pathological data. In addition, a PubMed search was performed to provide an extensive review of the robotic-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy literature. RESULTS: Seven patients had RALPN on the left or right sides with no intraoperative complications. One patient was electively converted to a robotic-assisted radical nephrectomy. The operative time ranged from 120 to 300 min, estimated blood loss (EBL ranged from 75 to 400 mL and, in five cases, the warm ischemia time (WIT ranged from 18 to 32 min. Two patients did not require any clamping. Overall, no transfusions were necessary, and there were no intraoperative complications or adverse postoperative clinical events. All margins were negative, and all patients were disease-free at the 6-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Robotic-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy is a feasible and safe approach to small renal cortical masses.Further prospective studies are needed to compare open partial nephrectomy with

[Laser-based quality assurance for robot-assisted milling at the base of the skull].

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Maassen, M M; Malthan, D; Stallkamp, J; Schäfer, A; Dammann, F; Schwaderer, E; Zenner, H P

2006-02-01

Implanting active hearing devices in the lateral base of the skull requires high-precision, secure fixation of the electromagnetic transducer and long-life anchorage using osteosynthetic fixation plates referred to as mountain brackets. Nonlinear distortion in the acoustic signal path and consecutive implant loosening can only be avoided by exact osseous milling to create the necessary cavity bed while avoiding excessive milling. Robot technology is ideal for high-precision milling. However, safety measures are necessary in order to prevent errors from occurring during the reduction process. Ideally, a robot should be guided by a navigation system. However, robotic systems so far available do not yet have an integrated global navigation system. We used an animal model under laboratory conditions to examine the extent to which the semiautomatic ROBIN assistant system developed could be expected to increase osseous milling accuracy before implanting active electronic hearing devices into the recipient tissue in the cranium. An existing prototype system for robot-assisted skull base surgery was equipped with laser sensors for geometric measurement of the operation site. The three-dimensional measurement data was compared with CT simulation data before, during, and after the robot-assisted operation. The experiments were conducted on test objects as well as on animal models. Under ideal conditions, the operation site could be measured at a spatial resolution of better than 0.02 mm in each dimension. However, reflections and impurities in the operation site from bleeding and rinsing fluids did have a considerable effect on data collection, necessitating specialised registering procedures. Using an error-tolerant procedure specifically developed, the effective registering error could be kept under 0.3 mm. After milling, the resulting shape matched the intended form at an accuracy level of 0.8 mm. The results show that robot systems can reach the accuracy required for

Evaluation of robotic-assisted platysmaplasty procedures in a cadaveric model using the da Vinci Surgical System.

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Taghizadeh, Farhan; Reiley, Carol; Mohr, Catherine; Paul, Malcolm

2014-03-01

We are evaluating the technical feasibility of robotic-assisted laparoscopic vertical-intermediate platysmaplasty in conjunction with an open rhytidectomy. In a cadaveric study, the da Vinci Surgical System was used to access certain angles in the lower neck that are difficult for traditional short incision, short flap procedures. Ergonomics, approach, and technical challenges were noted. To date, there are no published reports of robotic-assisted neck lifts, motivating us to assess its potential in this field of plastic surgery. Standard open technique short flap rhytidectomies with concurrent experimental robotic-assisted platysmaplasties (neck lifts) were performed on six cadavers with the da Vinci Si Surgical System(®) (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA). The surgical procedures were performed on a diverse cadaver population from June 2011 to January 2012. The procedures included (1) submental incision and laser-assisted liposuction, (2) open rhytidectomy, and (3) robotic-assisted platysmaplasty using knot-free sutures. A variety of sutures and fat extraction techniques, coupled with 0° and 30° three-dimensional endoscopes, were utilized to optimize visualization of the platysma. An unaltered da Vinci Si Surgical System with currently available instruments was easily adaptable to neck lift surgery. Mid-neck platysma exposure was excellent, tissue handling was delicate and precise, and suturing was easily performed. Robotic-assisted surgery has the potential to improve outcomes in neck lifts by offering the ability to manipulate instruments with increased freedom of movement, scaled motion, tremor reduction, and stereoscopic three-dimensional visualization in the deep neck. Future clinical studies on live human patients can better assess subject and surgeon benefits arising from the use of the da Vinci system for neck lifts. Evidence obtained from multiple time series with or without the intervention, such as case studies. Dramatic results in

Comparison of three-dimensional, assist-as-needed robotic arm/hand movement training provided with Pneu-WREX to conventional tabletop therapy after chronic stroke.

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Reinkensmeyer, David J; Wolbrecht, Eric T; Chan, Vicky; Chou, Cathy; Cramer, Steven C; Bobrow, James E

2012-11-01

Robot-assisted movement training can help individuals with stroke reduce arm and hand impairment, but robot therapy is typically only about as effective as conventional therapy. Refining the way that robots assist during training may make them more effective than conventional therapy. Here, the authors measured the therapeutic effect of a robot that required individuals with a stroke to achieve virtual tasks in three dimensions against gravity. The robot continuously estimated how much assistance patients needed to perform the tasks and provided slightly less assistance than needed to reduce patient slacking. Individuals with a chronic stroke (n = 26; baseline upper limb Fugl-Meyer score, 23 ± 8) were randomized into two groups and underwent 24 one-hour training sessions over 2 mos. One group received the assist-as-needed robot training and the other received conventional tabletop therapy with the supervision of a physical therapist. Training helped both groups significantly reduce their motor impairment, as measured by the primary outcome measure, the Fugl-Meyer score, but the improvement was small (3.0 ± 4.9 points for robot therapy vs. 0.9 ± 1.7 for conventional therapy). There was a trend for greater reduction for the robot-trained group (P = 0.07). The robot group largely sustained this gain at the 3-mo follow-up. The robot-trained group also experienced significant improvements in Box and Blocks score and hand grip strength, whereas the control group did not, but these improvements were not sustained at follow-up. In addition, the robot-trained group showed a trend toward greater improvement in sensory function, as measured by the Nottingham Sensory Test (P = 0.06). These results suggest that in patients with chronic stroke and moderate-severe deficits, assisting in three-dimensional virtual tasks with an assist-as-needed controller may make robotic training more effective than conventional tabletop training.

Analyzing Robotic Kinematics Via Computed Simulations

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Carnahan, Timothy M.

1992-01-01

Computing system assists in evaluation of kinematics of conceptual robot. Displays positions and motions of robotic manipulator within work cell. Also displays interactions between robotic manipulator and other objects. Results of simulation displayed on graphical computer workstation. System includes both off-the-shelf software originally developed for automotive industry and specially developed software. Simulation system also used to design human-equivalent hand, to model optical train in infrared system, and to develop graphical interface for teleoperator simulation system.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy: Current review of the technique and literature.

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Singh, Iqbal

2009-10-01

To visit the operative technique and to review the current published English literature on the technique, and outcomes following robot-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (RPN). We searched the published English literature and the PubMed(()) for published series of 'robotic partial nephrectomy' (RPN) using the keywords; robot, robot-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy, laparoscopic partial nephrectomy, partial nephrectomy and laparoscopic surgery. The search yielded 15 major selected series of 'robotic partial nephrectomy'; these were reviewed, tracked and analysed in order to determine the current status and role of RPN in the management of early renal neoplasm(s), as a minimally invasive surgical alternative to open partial nephrectomy. A review of the initial peri-operative outcome of the 350 cases of select series of RPN reported in published English literature revealed a mean operating time, warm ischemia time, estimated blood loss and hospital stay, of 191 minutes, 25 minutes, 162 ml and 2.95 days, respectively. The overall computed mean complication rate of RPN in the present select series was about 7.4%. RPN is a safe, feasible and effective minimally invasive surgical alternative to laparoscopic partial nephrectomy for early stage (T(1)) renal neoplasm(s). It has acceptable initial renal functional outcomes without the increased risk of major complications in experienced hands. Prospective randomised, controlled, comparative clinical trials with laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) are the need of the day. While the initial oncological outcomes of RPN appear to be favourable, long-term data is awaited.

Learning curve for robotic-assisted surgery for rectal cancer: use of the cumulative sum method.

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Yamaguchi, Tomohiro; Kinugasa, Yusuke; Shiomi, Akio; Sato, Sumito; Yamakawa, Yushi; Kagawa, Hiroyasu; Tomioka, Hiroyuki; Mori, Keita

2015-07-01

Few data are available to assess the learning curve for robotic-assisted surgery for rectal cancer. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the learning curve for robotic-assisted surgery for rectal cancer by a surgeon at a single institute. From December 2011 to August 2013, a total of 80 consecutive patients who underwent robotic-assisted surgery for rectal cancer performed by the same surgeon were included in this study. The learning curve was analyzed using the cumulative sum method. This method was used for all 80 cases, taking into account operative time. Operative procedures included anterior resections in 6 patients, low anterior resections in 46 patients, intersphincteric resections in 22 patients, and abdominoperineal resections in 6 patients. Lateral lymph node dissection was performed in 28 patients. Median operative time was 280 min (range 135-683 min), and median blood loss was 17 mL (range 0-690 mL). No postoperative complications of Clavien-Dindo classification Grade III or IV were encountered. We arranged operative times and calculated cumulative sum values, allowing differentiation of three phases: phase I, Cases 1-25; phase II, Cases 26-50; and phase III, Cases 51-80. Our data suggested three phases of the learning curve in robotic-assisted surgery for rectal cancer. The first 25 cases formed the learning phase.

Robot therapy: a new approach for mental healthcare of the elderly - a mini-review.

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Shibata, Takanori; Wada, Kazuyoshi

2011-01-01

Mental healthcare of elderly people is a common problem in advanced countries. Recently, high technology has developed robots for use not only in factories but also for our living environment. In particular, human-interactive robots for psychological enrichment, which provide services by interacting with humans while stimulating their minds, are rapidly spreading. Such robots not only simply entertain but also render assistance, guide, provide therapy, educate, enable communication, and so on. Robot therapy, which uses robots as a substitution for animals in animal-assisted therapy and activity, is a new application of robots and is attracting the attention of many researchers and psychologists. The seal robot named Paro was developed especially for robot therapy and was used at hospitals and facilities for elderly people in several countries. Recent research has revealed that robot therapy has the same effects on people as animal therapy. In addition, it is being recognized as a new method of mental healthcare for elderly people. In this mini review, we introduce the merits and demerits of animal therapy. Then we explain the human-interactive robot for psychological enrichment, the required functions for therapeutic robots, and the seal robot. Finally, we provide examples of robot therapy for elderly people, including dementia patients. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Advanced Myoelectric Control for Robotic Hand-Assisted Training: Outcome from a Stroke Patient.

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Lu, Zhiyuan; Tong, Kai-Yu; Shin, Henry; Li, Sheng; Zhou, Ping

2017-01-01

A hand exoskeleton driven by myoelectric pattern recognition was designed for stroke rehabilitation. It detects and recognizes the user's motion intent based on electromyography (EMG) signals, and then helps the user to accomplish hand motions in real time. The hand exoskeleton can perform six kinds of motions, including the whole hand closing/opening, tripod pinch/opening, and the "gun" sign/opening. A 52-year-old woman, 8 months after stroke, made 20× 2-h visits over 10 weeks to participate in robot-assisted hand training. Though she was unable to move her fingers on her right hand before the training, EMG activities could be detected on her right forearm. In each visit, she took 4× 10-min robot-assisted training sessions, in which she repeated the aforementioned six motion patterns assisted by our intent-driven hand exoskeleton. After the training, her grip force increased from 1.5 to 2.7 kg, her pinch force increased from 1.5 to 2.5 kg, her score of Box and Block test increased from 3 to 7, her score of Fugl-Meyer (Part C) increased from 0 to 7, and her hand function increased from Stage 1 to Stage 2 in Chedoke-McMaster assessment. The results demonstrate the feasibility of robot-assisted training driven by myoelectric pattern recognition after stroke.

Interactions With Robots: The Truths We Reveal About Ourselves.

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Broadbent, Elizabeth

2017-01-03

In movies, robots are often extremely humanlike. Although these robots are not yet reality, robots are currently being used in healthcare, education, and business. Robots provide benefits such as relieving loneliness and enabling communication. Engineers are trying to build robots that look and behave like humans and thus need comprehensive knowledge not only of technology but also of human cognition, emotion, and behavior. This need is driving engineers to study human behavior toward other humans and toward robots, leading to greater understanding of how humans think, feel, and behave in these contexts, including our tendencies for mindless social behaviors, anthropomorphism, uncanny feelings toward robots, and the formation of emotional attachments. However, in considering the increased use of robots, many people have concerns about deception, privacy, job loss, safety, and the loss of human relationships. Human-robot interaction is a fascinating field and one in which psychologists have much to contribute, both to the development of robots and to the study of human behavior.

Semi-manual mastoidectomy assisted by human-robot collaborative control - A temporal bone replica study.

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Lim, Hoon; Matsumoto, Nozomu; Cho, Byunghyun; Hong, Jaesung; Yamashita, Makoto; Hashizume, Makoto; Yi, Byung-Ju

2016-04-01

To develop an otological robot that can protect important organs from being injured. We developed a five degree-of-freedom robot for otological surgery. Unlike the other robots that were reported previously, our robot does not replace surgeon's procedures, but instead utilizes human-robot collaborative control. The robot basically releases all of the actuators so that the surgeon can manipulate the drill within the robot's working area with minimal restriction. When the drill reaches a forbidden area, the surgeon feels as if the drill hits a wall. When an engineer performed mastoidectomy using the robot for assistance, the facial nerve in the segmented region was always protected with a more than 2.5mm margin, which was almost the same as the pre-set safety margin of 3mm. Semi-manual drilling using human-robot collaborative control was feasible, and may hold a realistic prospect of clinical use in the near future. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Laparoscopic and robot-assisted laparoscopic digestive surgery: Present and future directions

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Rodríguez-Sanjuán, Juan C; Gómez-Ruiz, Marcos; Trugeda-Carrera, Soledad; Manuel-Palazuelos, Carlos; López-Useros, Antonio; Gómez-Fleitas, Manuel

2016-01-01

Laparoscopic surgery is applied today worldwide to most digestive procedures. In some of them, such as cholecystectomy, Nissen’s fundoplication or obesity surgery, laparoscopy has become the standard in practice. In others, such as colon or gastric resection, the laparoscopic approach is frequently used and its usefulness is unquestionable. More complex procedures, such as esophageal, liver or pancreatic resections are, however, more infrequently performed, due to the high grade of skill necessary. As a result, there is less clinical evidence to support its implementation. In the recent years, robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery has been increasingly applied, again with little evidence for comparison with the conventional laparoscopic approach. This review will focus on the complex digestive procedures as well as those whose use in standard practice could be more controversial. Also novel robot-assisted procedures will be updated. PMID:26877605

Considerations for designing robotic upper limb rehabilitation devices

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Nadas, I.; Vaida, C.; Gherman, B.; Pisla, D.; Carbone, G.

2017-12-01

The present study highlights the advantages of robotic systems for post-stroke rehabilitation of the upper limb. The latest demographic studies illustrate a continuous increase of the average life span, which leads to a continuous increase of stroke incidents and patients requiring rehabilitation. Some studies estimate that by 2030 the number of physical therapists will be insufficient for the patients requiring physical rehabilitation, imposing a shift in the current methodologies. A viable option is the implementation of robotic systems that assist the patient in performing rehabilitation exercises, the physical therapist role being to establish the therapeutic program for each patient and monitor their individual progress. Using a set of clinical measurements for the upper limb motions, the analysis of rehabilitation robotic systems provides a comparative study between the motions required by clinicians and the ones that robotic systems perform for different therapeutic exercises. A critical analysis of existing robots is performed using several classifications: mechanical design, assistance type, actuation and power transmission, control systems and human robot interaction (HRI) strategies. This classification will determine a set of pre-requirements for the definition of new concepts and efficient solutions for robotic assisted rehabilitation therapy.

COMPARISON OF CLASSICAL AND INTERACTIVE MULTI-ROBOT EXPLORATION STRATEGIES IN POPULATED ENVIRONMENTS

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Nassim Kalde

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Multi-robot exploration consists in coordinating robots for mapping an unknown environment. It raises several issues concerning task allocation, robot control, path planning and communication. We study exploration in populated environments, in which pedestrian flows can severely impact performances. However, humans have adaptive skills for taking advantage of these flows while moving. Therefore, in order to exploit these human abilities, we propose a novel exploration strategy that explicitly allows for human-robot interactions. Our model for exploration in populated environments combines the classical frontier-based strategy with our interactive approach. We implement interactions where robots can locally choose a human guide to follow and define a parametric heuristic to balance interaction and frontier assignments. Finally, we evaluate to which extent human presence impacts our exploration model in terms of coverage ratio, travelled distance and elapsed time to completion.

Robot-assisted reaching exercise promotes arm movement recovery in chronic hemiparetic stroke: a randomized controlled pilot study

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Rymer W Zev

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background and purpose Providing active assistance to complete desired arm movements is a common technique in upper extremity rehabilitation after stroke. Such active assistance may improve recovery by affecting somatosensory input, motor planning, spasticity or soft tissue properties, but it is labor intensive and has not been validated in controlled trials. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of robotically administered active-assistive exercise and compare those with free reaching voluntary exercise in improving arm movement ability after chronic stroke. Methods Nineteen individuals at least one year post-stroke were randomized into one of two groups. One group performed 24 sessions of active-assistive reaching exercise with a simple robotic device, while a second group performed a task-matched amount of unassisted reaching. The main outcome measures were range and speed of supported arm movement, range, straightness and smoothness of unsupported reaching, and the Rancho Los Amigos Functional Test of Upper Extremity Function. Results and discussion There were significant improvements with training for range of motion and velocity of supported reaching, straightness of unsupported reaching, and functional movement ability. These improvements were not significantly different between the two training groups. The group that performed unassisted reaching exercise improved the smoothness of their reaching movements more than the robot-assisted group. Conclusion Improvements with both forms of exercise confirmed that repeated, task-related voluntary activation of the damaged motor system is a key stimulus to motor recovery following chronic stroke. Robotically assisting in reaching successfully improved arm movement ability, although it did not provide any detectable, additional value beyond the movement practice that occurred concurrently with it. The inability to detect any additional value of robot-assisted reaching

Multi-Robot Remote Interaction with FS-MAS

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Yunliang Jiang

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The need to reduce bandwidth, improve productivity, autonomy and the scalability in multi-robot teleoperation has been recognized for a long time. In this article we propose a novel finite state machine mobile agent based on the network interaction service model, namely FS-MAS. This model consists of three finite state machines, namely the Finite State Mobile Agent (FS-Agent, which is the basic service module. The Service Content Finite State Machine (Content-FS, using the XML language to define workflow, to describe service content and service computation process. The Mobile Agent computation model Finite State Machine (MACM-FS, used to describe the service implementation. Finally, we apply this service model to the multi-robot system, the initial realization completing complex tasks in the form of multi-robot scheduling. This demonstrates that the robot has greatly improved intelligence, and provides a wide solution space for critical issues such as task division, rational and efficient use of resource and multi-robot collaboration.

Robot-Assisted Middle Pancreatectomy for Elderly Patients: Our Initial Experience

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Zhang, Tian; Wang, Xinjing; Huo, Zhen; Wen, Chenlei; Wu, Zhichong; Zhan, Qian; Jin, Jiabin; Cheng, Dongfeng; Chen, Hao; Deng, Xiaxing; Shen, Baiyong; Peng, Chenghong

2015-01-01

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the indications, safety, feasibility, and short- and long-term outcomes for elderly patients who underwent robot-assisted middle pancreatectomies (MPs). Material/Methods Ten patients (≥60 years) underwent robot-assisted middle pancreatectomies from 2012 to 2015. The perioperative data, including tumor size, operating time, rate of postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF), postoperative morbidity, and other parameters, were analyzed. We collected and analyzed the follow-up information. Results The mean age of patients was 64.30 years (range, 60–73 years). The average tumor size was 2.61 cm. The 10 cases were all benign or low-grade malignant lesions. The mean operating time was 175.00 min. The mean blood loss was 113.00 ml with no blood transfusion needed. Postoperative fistulas developed in 5 patients; there were 2 Grade A fistulas and 3 grade B fistulas. There were 3 patients who underwent postoperative complications, including 2 Grade 1 or 2 complications and 1 Grade 3 complication. No reoperation and postoperative mortality occurred. The mean hospital stay was 19.91 days. After a median follow-up of 23 months, new onset of diabetes mellitus developed in 1 patient and none suffered from deterioration of previously diagnosed diabetes or exocrine insufficiency, and no tumor recurrence happened. Conclusions Robot-assisted middle pancreatectomy was safe and feasible for elderly people. It had low risk of exocrine or endocrine dysfunction and benefited patients’ long-term outcomes. Incidence of POPF was relatively high but we could prevent it from resulting in bad outcomes by scientific perioperative care and systemic treatment. PMID:26395335

A Systematic Review on Existing Measures for the Subjective Assessment of Rehabilitation and Assistive Robot Devices

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Yiannis Koumpouros

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of the current study is to identify and classify outcome measures currently used for the assessment of rehabilitation or assistive robot devices. We conducted a systematic review of the literature using PubMed, MEDLINE, CIRRIE, and Scopus databases for studies that assessed rehabilitation or assistive robot devices from 1980 through January 2016. In all, 31 articles met all inclusion criteria. Tailor-made questionnaires were the most commonly used tool at 66.7%, while the great majority (93.9% of the studies used nonvalidated instruments. The study reveals the absence of a standard scale which makes it difficult to compare the results from different researchers. There is a great need, therefore, for a valid and reliable instrument to be available for use by the intended end users for the subjective assessment of robot devices. The study concludes by identifying two scales that have been validated in general assistive technology devices and could support the scope of subjective assessment in rehabilitation or assistive robots (however, with limited coverage and a new one called PYTHEIA, recently published. The latter intends to close the gap and help researchers and developers to evaluate, assess, and produce products that satisfy the real needs of the end users.

Kinematic modelling of a five-DOFs spatial manipulator used in robot-assisted surgery