A haptic guidance system for simulated catheter navigation with different kinaesthetic feedback profiles.

Background: This paper proposes a haptic guidance system to improve catheter navigation within a simulated environment.

Methods: Three force profiles were constructed to evaluate the system: collision prevention; centreline navigation; and a novel force profile of reinforcement learning (RL). All force profiles were evaluated from the left common iliac to the right atrium.

Robust Global stabilization of aerial continuum manipulation systems via hybrid feedback.

In this paper, the control problem of aerial continuum manipulation systems (ACMSs) is considered. This study introduces a new platform for ACMSs in which a quadrotor is equipped with a tendon-bent concentric tube continuum robot. The decoupled dynamic modeling of ACMSs is utilized to derive the proposed feedback control law.

Aerial Continuum Manipulation: A New Platform for Compliant Aerial Manipulation.

Traditional aerial manipulation systems were usually composed of rigid-link manipulators attached to an aerial platform, arising several rigidity-related issues such as difficulties of reach, compliant motion, adaptability to object's shape and pose uncertainties, and safety of human-manipulator interactions, especially in unstructured and confined environments. To address these issues, partially compliant manipulators, composed of rigid links and compliant/flexible joints, were proposed; however, they still suffer from insufficient dexterity and maneuverability. In this article, a new set of compliant aerial manipulators is suggested.

Visual servoing of continuum robots: Methods, challenges, and prospects.

Background: Recent advancements in continuum robotics have accentuated developing efficient and stable controllers to handle shape deformation and compliance. The control of continuum robots (CRs) using physical sensors attached to the robot, particularly in confined spaces, is difficult due to their limited accuracy in three-dimensional deflections and challenging localisation. Therefore, using non-contact imaging sensors finds noticeable importance, particularly in medical scenarios.

Inverse Kinematics of Concentric Tube Robots in the Presence of Environmental Constraints.

Inverse kinematics (IK) of concentric tube continuum robots (CTRs) is associated with two main problems. First, the robot model (e.g.

Design and experimental evaluation of block-pulse functions and Legendre polynomials observer for attitude-heading reference system.

The main purpose of this paper is design and implementation of a new linear observer for an attitude and heading reference system (AHRS), which includes three-axis accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers in the presence of sensors and modeling uncertainties. Since the increase of errors over time is the main difficulty of low-cost micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) sensors producing instable on-off bias, scale factor (SF), nonlinearity and random walk errors, development of a high-precision observer to improve the accuracy of MEMS-based navigation systems is considered. First, the duality between controller and estimator in a linear system is presented as the base of design method.

Design and experimental evaluation of an automated catheter operating system.

Manual catheter-based interventions (CBIs) suffer from exposure of the interventionalists to X-ray, and dependence of their performance on the expertise and fatigue level of the interventionalists. Robot-assisted catheterization systems (RACS) have been introduced in recent years to improve the efficiency of CBIs; however, using them is still associated with some difficulties such as set-up dependency to a specific type of intervention instrument, not being portable, and offering limited options of operation modes. The objective of this research is to develop a new RACS to address these shortcomings.

Subgroup analysis of PD tremor with loading: action tremor as a combination of classical rest and physiological tremor.

Background: In Parkinson disease, tremor is a challenging symptom to manage, partly due to inadequate characterization. The current (classic) model of tremor is characterized by a resting tremor with a single strong peak in 3.5-6.

A robust vision-based sensor fusion approach for real-time pose estimation.

Object pose estimation is of great importance to many applications, such as augmented reality, localization and mapping, motion capture, and visual servoing. Although many approaches based on a monocular camera have been proposed, only a few works have concentrated on applying multicamera sensor fusion techniques to pose estimation. Higher accuracy and enhanced robustness toward sensor defects or failures are some of the advantages of these schemes.

Biomechanical measurements of surgical drilling force and torque in human versus artificial femurs.

Few experimental studies have examined surgical drilling in human bone, and no studies have inquired into this aspect for a popular commercially-available artificial bone used in biomechanical studies. Sixteen fresh-frozen human femurs and five artificial femurs were obtained. Cortical specimens were mounted into a clamping system equipped with a thrust force and torque transducer.

Force and torque modelling of drilling simulation for orthopaedic surgery.

The advent of haptic simulation systems for orthopaedic surgery procedures has provided surgeons with an excellent tool for training and preoperative planning purposes. This is especially true for procedures involving the drilling of bone, which require a great amount of adroitness and experience due to difficulties arising from vibration and drill bit breakage. One of the potential difficulties with the drilling of bone is the lack of consistent material evacuation from the drill's flutes as the material tends to clog.

Remote controlled robot assisted cardiac navigation: feasibility assessment and validation in a porcine model.

Background: Despite the recent advances in catheter design and technology, intra-cardiac navigation during electrophysiology procedures remains challenging. Incorporation of imaging along with magnetic or robotic guidance may improve navigation accuracy and procedural safety. In the present study, the in vivo performance of a novel remote controlled Robot Assisted Cardiac Navigation System (RACN) was evaluated in a porcine model.

Dynamic phase evaluation in sparse-sampled temporal speckle pattern sequence.

The rapid progress of modern manufacturing technology has posed stringent requirements for inspecting techniques for vibration characterization and dynamic testing. Because of its simplicity, accuracy, and whole-field character, speckle interferometry has served as one of the major techniques for dynamic measurement, where normally a dense-sampled temporal speckle sequence is captured for phase retrieval using Fourier or wavelet transforms. In this Letter, a method is proposed for phase evaluation of sparse-sampled speckle patterns when the sampling rate is lower than two points per temporal cycle.

Dynamic phase measurement in shearography by clustering method and Fourier filtering.

Quantitative phase extraction is a key step in optical measurement. While phase shifting technique is widely employed for static or semi-static phase measurement, it requires several images with known phase shifts at each deformed stage, thus is not suitable for dynamic phase measurement. Fourier transform offer a solution to extract phase information from a single fringe pattern.

Analysis of visual acuity and motion resolvability as measures for optimal visual perception of the workspace.

For working tasks with high visual demand, ergonomic design of the working stations requires defining criteria for comparative evaluation and analysis of the visual perceptibility in different regions of the workspace. This paper provides kinematic models of visual acuity and motion resolvability as adopted measures of visual perceptibility of the workspace. The proposed models have been examined through two sets of experiments.

Experimental analysis of mobile-robot teleoperation via shared impedance control.

In this paper, Internet-based teleoperation of mobile robots for obstacle avoidance is analyzed. A shared impedance-control scheme is presented, and the results of an experimental study for the evaluation of the effects of different teleoperation parameters are reported. In the experimental study, the effects of time delay, operator training, image-display alternatives (virtual model versus real images), viewpoint, and force-reflection method were studied.

Optical design of a variable view imaging system with the combination of a telecentric scanner and double wedge prisms.

Recent developments in micro-electro-mechanical systems and biotechnology have presented an emerging need for observation of dynamic targets in three-dimensional space. Unfortunately, conventional microscopes with fixed optical parameters have difficulty supplying sufficient vision information because of occlusion, small field of view, and low depth resolution. This paper introduces the design of a variable view imaging system that can supply a flexible view with a relatively large zenith angle and simple kinematics.

Robot-assisted catheter manipulation for intracardiac navigation.

Objective: Manual navigation of intracardiac steerable catheters is inaccurate, requires dexterity for efficient manipulation of the catheter, and exposes the interventionalist to ionizing radiation. The objective of this research is to develop a system that replaces the interventionalists's hands in catheter manipulation for accurate and semi-automatic tele-navigation of catheters.

Methods: Based on a proposed kinematic model for the distal shaft of the catheter, a system has been developed for assisted navigation of intracardiac catheters.

EMG-biofeedback and load sharing problem in assistive and rehabilitation orthotic devices.

Biofeedback signals have been frequently used for rehabilitation purposes, and in design and calibration of orthotic and prosthetic devices. Whenever one or a couple of muscles of a joint are chosen for rehabilitation or control of a device, it's assumed that a specific load sharing or activation pattern exists among them for each individual and for each specific joint demand. Indeterminacy or a load sharing problem arises from having more muscles crossing a joint than needed to perform all possible movements.

Tremor suppression orthoses for parkinson's patients: a frequency range perspective.

While the majority of tremor-afflicted Parkinso-nian (PD) patients suffer from rest tremors, which is not considered highly disabling, a portion of these PD patients also demonstrate action tremors that interfere with their daily lives. Two main considerations in designing an orthosis that aims at suppressing the tremor, are the frequency bands of the tremor and the joints tremor affects. Nine subjects, which included six healthy people, two PD patients with typical tremor afflictions, and a PD patient with severe tremor of not only in her fingers and wrist, but also in her elbow, participated in this study.

Catheter kinematics for intracardiac navigation.

Steerable catheters are utilized frequently in minimally invasive cardiac interventions. Despite their extensive applications, the properties of the steerable section of such devices have not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, the kinematics of the distal shaft of the catheters is modeled, and the catheter's reachable workspace and its singular configurations are studied.

Active optical system for variable view imaging of micro objects with emphasis on kinematic analysis.

Insufficient vision information, such as occlusion, low resolvability, and a small field of view, represent important issues in microassembly and micromanipulation. We propose an active optical system to solve problems related to insufficient vision information through the integration of robotics and optics technologies. The proposed system integrates a double-prism system and a scanning mirror system to supply a compact flexible view.

Formulation of radiometric feasibility measures for feature selection and planning in visual servoing.

Feature selection and planning are integral parts of visual servoing systems. Because many irrelevant and nonreliable image features usually exist, higher accuracy and robustness can be expected by selecting and planning good features. Assumption of perfect radiometric conditions is common in visual servoing.