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Using special tools at the end-effectors of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) robots has an important role in building a simple and well controlled system that increases dexterity of surgeons. Having local, lightweight and powerful actuators at end-effectors could help to simplified wrist design and saving the number of degrees-of-freedom (DOFs). Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators considered as good...
An active training system is characterized by providing quantitative information of the trainee's performance of the task to the trainee, simulating real-world conditions of the task, and assuring training effectiveness. For this purpose, the authors have been developing an Airway management training system. In particular, we have previously presented an evaluation model system to acquire quantitative...
A prototype for a walking assistance apparatus for the elderly or motor palsy patients was developed, using a novel spatial parallel link mechanism. The flat steps of the apparatus move in parallel with the ground; the apparatus can support entire leg alignment (including soles) and assist; walking behavior at ankle, knee and hip joints simultaneously. By using a flexible link, constructed of stainless...
An omni-directional walker (ODW) has been developed for walking rehabilitation and walking support in the authors' previous studies. It is necessary for the ODW to know its user's directional intention according to the user's manipulation during walking support. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to recognize a user's directional intention according to his/her forearm pressures to the ODW,...
Walking is a vital exercise for health promotion and a fundamental ability necessary for everyday life. In the authors' previous studies, an omni-directional walker (ODW) has been developed for walking rehabilitation and walking support. In the case of walking support, it is necessary for the ODW to know which direction its user is intending to go according to the user's manipulation. However, since...
The number of hemiplegic patients with a unilateral-disabled limb has been increasing globally, this stimulate the development of rehabilitation robots that assist patients in motor function recovery and strength enhancement. However, as yet, few robots have achieved self-controlled rehabilitation training, and force feedback is generally realized with force sensors. This paper introduces a self-controlled...
Cochlear electrode insertion is a challenging manual procedure. One technique requires the physician to coordinate the motions of an electrode array approximately 1mm in diameter and the smaller stylet within it, using miniature forceps. A new minimally invasive access technique precludes forceps insertion because the electrode must travel through a small-diameter drilled hole to reach the cochlear...
Haptic interfaces have played an important role in the investigation of human factors, the identification of passive joint properties and gaining a better understanding of how the central nervous system learns to compensate for external dynamic perturbations through neuromuscular adaptation. Such devices further promise novel therapeutic approaches in neurorehabilitation, by assisting the patient...
In this paper, we propose a novel master-slave system for micro-manipulation of the mechanical contact type. In the proposed system, suck and blow movements in the master side are scaled and transmitted to the slave side, i.e., we generate the air flow at the tip of the micro-straw in the slave side according to operator's suck and blow in the master side. The air flows by operator's suck and blow...
The emerging field of medical robotics is aiming in introducing intelligent tools to perform medical procedures. In particular, robotic researchers have been proposed advanced medical training systems to enhance motor dexterities of trainees. An efficient medical training system should be designed to simulate real-world conditions and to assure their effectiveness as the representation of the motor...
The surgical robot instruments conduct an operation in the body on behalf of the surgeon's hands. However working inside a body prohibits attaching electronic sensors in addition to space restriction. Therefore, all commercial surgical robots are only operated in position control mode becuase there is no way to measure the working force at instrument. The position control mode of the robot system...
In this paper, sensing techniques are described to determine the state of interaction between tissues and tool-points with the aim to control 'Smart' tool points and mechanisms for surgery. By adopting this approach there is the potential to control the position of tool-points precisely in tissues that are moving or deflecting under tool forces and to discriminate different conditions or states in...
A needle-holding robot for microwave ablation therapy is developed to free two hands of the surgeon, so that more effort can be concentrated on monitoring the ablation procedure, which in turn guarantees good tumor ablation effect. The overall architecture of the robot is introduced first with the explanation of the mechanism of 3D motion tracking and how to minimize damping force for the robotic...
To better understand the biomechanical properties involved in Drosophila embryo research, this work presents a mechanical characterization of living Drosophila embryos through the stages of embryogenesis. Measurement of the mechanical properties of Drosophila embryos is implemented using a networked human/robot cooperative interface featuring a novel, in situ, and minimally invasive piezoelectric...
The 10 mm incisions used in minimally invasive cancer surgery prevent direct manual palpation of internal organs, making intraoperative tumor localization difficult. A tactile sensing instrument (TSI), that uses a commercially available sensor to measure distributed pressure profiles along the contacting surface, has been developed to facilitate remote tissue palpation. The objective of this research...
The emerging field of medical robotics is aiming in introducing intelligent tools. More recently, thanks to the innovations on robot technology (RT), advanced medical training systems have been introduced to improve the skills of trainees. The principal challenges of developing efficient medical training systems are simulating real-world conditions and assuring their effectiveness. Up to now, different...
In order to offer a method for the rehabilitation of injured fingers and a means of quantitative detection and evaluation, an exoskeleton based continuous passive motion (CPM) machine is presented in this paper. Corresponding to each finger of human hand, the CPM machine has 4 degrees of freedom (DOF) driven by two DC motors. The joint force and position sensors are all integrated into the machine...
Haptic perception plays a very important role in surgery. It enables the surgeon to feel organic tissue hardness, measure tissue properties, evaluate anatomical structures, and allows him/her to commit appropriate force control actions for safe tissue manipulation. However, in minimally invasive surgery, the surgeon's ability of perceiving valuable haptic information through surgical instruments is...
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