Medical robotics

Robots will be a part of our everyday lives in the near future. Biomedical applications of both professional and personal service robots are becoming increasingly common. A survey conducted by the United Nations Economic Comission for Europe (UNECE) in conjunction with the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) [2004] estimated that a stock of 21,000 professional service robots at the end of 2003 and projected 75,000 by the end of 2007. These include medical robots, underwater robots, surveillance robots, demolition robots, and many other types of robots for carrying out a multitude of tasks. Medical robots comprised 12% of the 2003 estimates. 

Eleni A. 2008. Control of medical robotics and neurorobotic prosthetics by noninvasive brain-robot interfaces via EEG and RFID technology. 2008 8th IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and BioEngineering -4, Athens, Greece. 

There are different types of medical robots. Early robots in hospitals were used to transport medical supplies and deliver drugs to doctors and nurses from the pharmacy. Engineers have significantly refined these robots. One of the newest versions, SpeciMinder, has a simple push-button control panel that allows lab technicians to select several destinations for the specimens. The SpeciMinder will calculate the most efficient route and stop at all assigned locations (see Figure 17-8). When finished, the robot wiU automatically return to its charging dock. 

Keywords Medical robot Minimally invasive Surgical robot Intervention Biopsy Ablation Percutaneous procedure... 

Kobayashi, Y., Hong, J., Hamano, R., Okada, K., Fujie, M.G., Hashizume, M. Development of a needle insertion manipulator for central venous catheterization. The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery 8(1), 34—44 (2012)... 

In this chapter, we presented recent achievements and important works relating to healthcare robotics, the success of which relies on the collaboration between clinicians and engineers in front of real patients in operating/training rooms. In other words, the development of medical robotics is typical translational research relying on collaboration and intercommunication. 

Taylor, R.H., Stoianovici, D. Medical robotics in computer-integrated surgery. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 19(5), 765-781 (2003)... 

He, C., Wang, S., Sang, H., Li, J., Zhang, L. Force sensing of multiple-DOF cable-driven instruments for minimally invasive robotic surgery. International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery 10(3), 314—324 (2014)... 

To make our discussion more concrete, we briefly present two examples of deployed CIS systems ROBODOC (Integrated Surgical Systems, Davis, California) an active medical robotics system, and the StealthStation (Medtronic Surgical Navigation Technology, Boulder, Colorado), an intraoperative navigation system used in neurosurgery and orthopedics. 

Force sensors are commonly used in medical robotic systems to measure and monitor tool-to-tissue and tool-to-surgeon interaction forces. Generally speaking, the technology used in these sensors is the same as that used in other applications, although specific issues of sterility and compactness often present unusual design strategies. 

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