Model-Augmented Haptic Telemanipulation: Concept, Retrospective Overview, and Current Use Cases.

Certain telerobotic applications, including telerobotics in space, pose particularly demanding challenges to both technology and humans. Traditional bilateral telemanipulation approaches often cannot be used in such applications due to technical and physical limitations such as long and varying delays, packet loss, and limited bandwidth, as well as high reliability, precision, and task duration requirements. In order to close this gap, we research model-augmented haptic telemanipulation (MATM) that uses two kinds of models: a remote model that enables shared autonomous functionality of the teleoperated robot, and a local model that aims to generate assistive augmented haptic feedback for the human operator.

[Robotic assistance systems for surgery : Current developments and focus of research].

As robotic systems are now technically mature and widely available, they also play an increasingly important role in the clinical environment. Thus, numerous robotic assistance systems for diagnosis and therapy have shown their potential for supporting patient care. After a brief review of the history, this article describes currently available robotic assistance systems for surgery, especially those originating in Germany and Europe as well as current focal topics of research.

DLR MiroSurge: a versatile system for research in endoscopic telesurgery.

Purpose: Research on surgical robotics demands systems for evaluating scientific approaches. Such systems can be divided into dedicated and versatile systems. Dedicated systems are designed for a single surgical task or technique, whereas versatile systems are designed to be expandable and useful in multiple surgical applications.

Multisensory visual servoing by a neural network.

Conventional computer vision methods for determining a robot's end-effector motion based on sensory data needs sensor calibration (e.g., camera calibration) and sensor-to-hand calibration (e.

Development of actuated and sensor integrated forceps for minimally invasive robotic surger.

In minimally invasive surgery (MIS) the patient's skin forms a spatial barrier between the operation area and the surgeon. This prevents direct access to the operation site which causes a lack of dexterity and limits the sensation of tissue manipulation forces, therefore complicating MIS procedures significantly. A telepresence approach can overcome these limitations: Additional degrees of freedom (DoF) inside the patient provide full manipulability and force torque sensors at the distal end of the instrument allow precise measurement of interaction forces.

Motion estimation in beating heart surgery.

Minimally invasive beating-heart surgery offers substantial benefits for the patient, compared to conventional open surgery. Nevertheless, the motion of the heart poses increased requirements to the surgeon. To support the surgeon, algorithms for an advanced robotic surgery system are proposed, which offer motion compensation of the beating heart.

A virtual-reality-based haptic surgical training system.

To improve training facilities for surgeons, a surgical training system based on virtual reality techniques has been developed. The goal of the developed system is to improve education of surgeons by making the knowledge of expert surgeons directly available to trainees. The system realizes two different approaches: the library and the driving school paradigm.

Space robotics--DLR's telerobotic concepts, lightweight arms and articulated hands.

The paper briefly outlines DLR's experience with real space robot missions (ROTEX and ETS VII). It then discusses forthcoming projects, e.g.

Self-guided robotic camera control for laparoscopic surgery compared with human camera control.

Background: In laparoscopic surgery, the surgeon no longer has direct visual control of the operation area, and a camera assistant who maneuvers the laparoscope is essential. Problems of cooperation between the two naturally arise, and a robotic assistant that automatically controls the laparoscope can offer a highly desirable alternative to this situation.

Methods: A self-guided robotic camera control system (SGRCCS) based upon a color tracking method has been developed and its use evaluated in 20 cases of laparoscopic cholecystectomy and compared with using human camera control.

Learning shape from shading by a multilayer network.

The multilayer feedforward network has often been used for learning a nonlinear mapping based on a set of examples of the input-output data. In this paper, we present a novel use of the network, in which the example data are not explicitly given. We consider the problem of shape from shading in computer vision, where the input (image coordinates) and the output (surface depth) satisfy only a known differential equation.

[Technical requirements and possibilities of teleconsultation in laparoscopic interventions].

Recent developments in robot technology and communication media have opened the way for their use in various medical techniques. Automated camera guidance as well as new telecommunication systems make it possible to carry out extensive laparoscopic operations precisely and to provide teaching assistance from great distances (so-called telepreceptorship). Long-term cost reduction, reduction of surgical complications and the improvement of quality standards are some of the benefits which could be realized by use of such systems.