sensors-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Challenges, Emerging Technologies, and Future Trends of Robotic Surgery

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomedical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 1839

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark
Interests: medical robotics; electrical bio-impedance; compliant mechanisms

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark
Interests: computer vision; robot programming; learning from demonstration; deep learning

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS), University College London, London, UK
Interests: computer vision; surgical vision; surgical data science; medical imaging; geometric understanding; image registration; surgical robotics

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Advanced Robotics (ADVR), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
Interests: robotic manipulation; learning from demonstration; human-robot interaction; medical robotic applications; computer vision; medical imaging

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

About 30 years ago, the robot was introduced for the first time to the operating suite for taking care of simple tasks. After 30 years of developments, nowadays, different types of surgical robots have been built and served in almost all types of surgery. In the future, surgical robots can continue being improved by leveraging the technological developments and the use of core technologies, such as computer vision, sensors and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to develop more reliable capabilities of assisting and interacting with surgeons in a more intuitive way. The debate over autonomous surgery has been on-going since the development of the first surgical robots. On one side, there are arguments towards keeping the control of the procedures in the hands of the surgeon, including concerns regarding safety and legal responsibility for the procedures. On the other side, robots are capable of executing more precise and delicate tasks than humans, and AI is enabling them to take more active roles in decision making during surgery.

In this special issue, we invite papers related to the recent technological advancements and clinical challenges of robotic surgery. In particular, we are seeking articles that fall within, but are not limited to, the following topics: describing the latest developments in robot-assisted surgery, novel sensory setups, computer vision methodologies and image-guided devices, AI approaches and mechanical design applied in robotic surgery. In addition, the incorporation of artificial intelligence empowers surgeons and robots in more complex procedures, evoking new opportunities, applications, and challenges. This special issue also welcomes contributions concerning technologies, ethical regulations in clinical procedures, training or educational systems for surgery, and review papers on relevant aspects or viewpoints on future perspectives.

Topics include, but not limited to:

  • Modelling, control, and design of surgical robots;
  • Sensors and instrumentation for robotic surgery;
  • Tool–tissue interaction and manipulation;
  • Machine vision and image-guided surgery;
  • Surgical data science;
  • Machine learning and AI for sensory data analysis and validation;
  • Surgical workflow, action, activity, and gesture recognition in surgery and OR;
  • Surgical navigation and augmented reality;
  • Educational platforms for training and surgical skill assessment;
  • Advanced user interface, human–robot interaction, and clinical translation;
  • Ethical regulation;
  • Review of technical solutions for the current challenges and future trends of robotic surgery.

Dr. Zhuoqi Cheng
Prof. Dr. Thiusius Rajeeth Savarimuthu
Dr. Sophia Bano
Dr. Maria Koskinopoulou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • surgical robotics
  • surgical data science
  • surgical modelling
  • human robot interaction
  • image-guided surgery
  • machine learning

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

15 pages, 35607 KiB  
Article
A Lightweight and Affordable Wearable Haptic Controller for Robot-Assisted Microsurgery
by Xiaoqing Guo, Finn McFall, Peiyang Jiang, Jindong Liu, Nathan Lepora and Dandan Zhang
Sensors 2024, 24(9), 2676; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24092676 - 23 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1318
Abstract
In robot-assisted microsurgery (RAMS), surgeons often face the challenge of operating with minimal feedback, particularly lacking in haptic feedback. However, most traditional desktop haptic devices have restricted operational areas and limited dexterity. This report describes a novel, lightweight, and low-budget wearable haptic controller [...] Read more.
In robot-assisted microsurgery (RAMS), surgeons often face the challenge of operating with minimal feedback, particularly lacking in haptic feedback. However, most traditional desktop haptic devices have restricted operational areas and limited dexterity. This report describes a novel, lightweight, and low-budget wearable haptic controller for teleoperated microsurgical robotic systems. We designed a wearable haptic interface entirely made using off-the-shelf material-PolyJet Photopolymer, fabricated using liquid and solid hybrid 3D co-printing technology. This interface was designed to resemble human soft tissues and can be wrapped around the fingertips, offering direct contact feedback to the operator. We also demonstrated that the device can be easily integrated with our motion tracking system for remote microsurgery. Two motion tracking methods, marker-based and marker-less, were compared in trajectory-tracking experiments at different depths to find the most effective motion tracking method for our RAMS system. The results indicate that within the 4 to 8 cm tracking range, the marker-based method achieved exceptional detection rates. Furthermore, the performance of three fusion algorithms was compared to establish the unscented Kalman filter as the most accurate and reliable. The effectiveness of the wearable haptic controller was evaluated through user studies focusing on the usefulness of haptic feedback. The results revealed that haptic feedback significantly enhances depth perception for operators during teleoperated RAMS. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop