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Robotic Systems for Biomedical Applications
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Robotic Systems for Biomedical Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 22258

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Sungon Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Associate Professor, School of Electrical Engineering, Hanyang University, Ansan 15588, Korea
Interests: biomedical robots; intelligent systems for biomedical applications; mecial image processing
Dr. Deukhee Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Principal Researcher, Center for Medical Robotics, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 02792, Korea
Interests: surgical robots; surgical navigation; medical image processing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is a growing consensus in the field that biomedical applications are very important areas of intelligent systems and robots. With the recent technical progress triggered by technical innovation from fourth industrial revolution, such as deep learning and 3D printing, various intelligent robotic systems for biomedical applications have been rapidly developed with an improved performance both in software and hardware points of view. In this Special Issue, we would like to introduce those recent developments. Practical usefulness should be considered as one of the most important features in these applications.

We invite submissions exploring recent intelligent robotics systems which are currently being used or have the potential to be used in biomedical applications across scales, including surgical robots, intelligent systems for rehabilitations, intelligent diagnosis systems, biomedical signal processing, and novel biomedical applications of robots.

Prof. Dr. Sungon Lee
Dr. Deukhee Lee
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. Applied Sciences 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 2400 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

  • Rehabilitation robots
  • Medical assistive robots
  • Surgical planning and robots
  • Biomedical image processing
  • Intelligent diagnosis systems
  • Bionic prostheses
  • Novel biomedical applications of intelligent systems and robots
  • Surgical navigation systems
  • Medical microrobots

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3120 KiB  
Article
Development of a Knee Actuated Exoskeletal Gait Orthosis for Paraplegic Patients with Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: A Single Case Study
by Yoon Heo, Hyuk-Jae Choi, Seok-Jin Hwang, Jong-Won Lee, Chil-Yong Kwon, Hyeon-Seok Cho and Gyoo-Suk Kim
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(1), 58; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11010058 - 23 Dec 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2734
Abstract
Gait training for paraplegic patients is effective in preventing various complications due to prolonged sitting. In these patients, the use of powered exoskeletal-gait-orthosis (EGO) consumes lower energy than traditional training methods using non-powered EGO, such as a reciprocating-gait-orthosis (RGO). Thus, long-term training is [...] Read more.
Gait training for paraplegic patients is effective in preventing various complications due to prolonged sitting. In these patients, the use of powered exoskeletal-gait-orthosis (EGO) consumes lower energy than traditional training methods using non-powered EGO, such as a reciprocating-gait-orthosis (RGO). Thus, long-term training is possible and effective in increasing the activity level of the trunk muscles. However, more than 60% of paraplegic patients have incomplete injuries with residual function, which is inversely related to the functional role of the orthosis. We hypothesized that the gait ability in incomplete paraplegia could be improved by knee joint activation, and we developed a lightweight knee-actuated EGO (KAEGO). We verified its effectiveness in one patient with an incomplete spinal cord injury by comparing the metabolic cost of transport (COT) measured by a six minute walk test to a traditional non-powered EGO. We found that with increasing assist torque to the knee joint, the COT decreased by up to 24.5%, and the gait performance, including walking speed and travel distance, significantly improved up to 37% compared to that of the non-powered EGO. Future studies should verify the KAEGO system’s effectiveness in a larger number of patients with various injury levels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotic Systems for Biomedical Applications)
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11 pages, 1853 KiB  
Article
Effect of Passive Support of the Spinal Muscles on the Biomechanics of a Lumbar Finite Element Model
by Inhan Kang, Minwook Choi, Deukhee Lee and Gunwoo Noh
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(18), 6278; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10186278 - 9 Sep 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3568
Abstract
Finite element (FE) modeling of the passive ligamentous spine is widely used to assess various biomechanical behaviors. Currently, FE models that incorporate the vertebrae, ligaments, and the personalized geometry of the bony spine may be used in conjunction with external loads from the [...] Read more.
Finite element (FE) modeling of the passive ligamentous spine is widely used to assess various biomechanical behaviors. Currently, FE models that incorporate the vertebrae, ligaments, and the personalized geometry of the bony spine may be used in conjunction with external loads from the muscles. However, while the muscles place a load (moment) on the spine and support it simultaneously, the effect of the passive support from the adjacent spinal muscles has not been considered. This study thus aims to investigate the effect of passive support from the psoas major, quadratus lumborum, and erector muscles on the range of motion (RoM) and intradiscal pressure (IDP) of the lumbar spine. Various L2-sacrum spinal models that differed only in their muscle properties were constructed and loaded with a pure moment (2.5–15.0 Nm) alone or combined with a compressive (440 or 1000 N) follower load. The RoM and IDP of the model that excluded the effect of muscles closely matched previous FE results under the corresponding load conditions. When the muscles (40–160 kPa) were included in the FE model, the RoM at L2 was reduced by up to 6.57% under a pure moment (10 Nm). The IDP was reduced by up to 6.45% under flexion and 6.84% under extension. It was also found that the erector muscles had a greater effect than the psoas major and quadratus muscles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotic Systems for Biomedical Applications)
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16 pages, 4918 KiB  
Article
Knee-Assistive Robotic Exoskeleton (KARE-1) Using a Conditionally Singular Mechanism for Industrial Field Applications
by Hyung Joo Kim, Jaeho Noh and Woosung Yang
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(15), 5141; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10155141 - 27 Jul 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3378
Abstract
With the aging demographic of today’s society, the need for robotic exoskeletons is expected to increase as they can compensate for declining physical strength in the physically impaired. In this study, an assistive robotic exoskeleton for the knee joint with fairly low energy [...] Read more.
With the aging demographic of today’s society, the need for robotic exoskeletons is expected to increase as they can compensate for declining physical strength in the physically impaired. In this study, an assistive robotic exoskeleton for the knee joint with fairly low energy consumption is proposed for industrial applications. The knee-assistive robotic exoskeleton (KARE-1) was designed to support a human body during production line tasks. The KARE-1 is based on a four-bar link mechanism with a rotary actuator and gas spring to accommodate a high power-to-weight ratio. By taking advantage of the utilized singular configuration of the four-bar linkage, this novel design is able to efficiently support the weight of the human body. The selected singular configuration allows this device to support the knee joint in the load-bearing stages of static sitting as well as during the motion between standing and sitting. The proposed device is further able to move freely along with the knee during walking movements. The proposed design was verified through a series of numerical simulations and through human subject testing at an industrial workplace. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotic Systems for Biomedical Applications)
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16 pages, 2893 KiB  
Article
Cascaded Regression-Based Segmentation of Cardiac CT under Probabilistic Correspondences
by Jang Pyo Bae, Malinda Vania, Siyeop Yoon, Sojeong Cheon, Chang Hwan Yoon and Deukhee Lee
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(14), 4947; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10144947 - 18 Jul 2020
Viewed by 2194
Abstract
The creation of 3D models for cardiac mapping systems is time-consuming, and the models suffer from issues with repeatability among operators. The present study aimed to construct a double-shaped model composed of the left ventricle and left atrium. We developed cascaded-regression-based segmentation software [...] Read more.
The creation of 3D models for cardiac mapping systems is time-consuming, and the models suffer from issues with repeatability among operators. The present study aimed to construct a double-shaped model composed of the left ventricle and left atrium. We developed cascaded-regression-based segmentation software with probabilistic point and appearance correspondence. Group-wise registration of point sets constructs the point correspondence from probabilistic matches, and the proposed method also calculates appearance correspondence from these probabilistic matches. Final point correspondence of group-wise registration constructed independently for three surfaces of the double-shaped model. Stochastic appearance selection of cascaded regression enables the effective construction in the aspect of memory usage and computation time. The two correspondence construction methods of active appearance models were compared in terms of the paired segmentation of the left atrium (LA) and left ventricle (LV). The proposed method segmented 35 cardiac CTs in six-fold cross-validation, and the symmetric surface distance (SSD), Hausdorff distance (HD), and Dice coefficient (DC), were used for evaluation. The proposed method produced 1.88 ± 0.37 mm of LV SSD, 2.25 ± 0.51 mm* of LA SSD, and 2.06 ± 0.34 mm* of the left heart (LH) SSD. Additionally, DC was 80.45% ± 4.27%***, where * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, and *** p < 0.001. All p values derive from paired t-tests comparing iterative closest registration with the proposed method. In conclusion, the authors developed a cascaded regression framework for 3D cardiac CT segmentation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotic Systems for Biomedical Applications)
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24 pages, 23539 KiB  
Article
A Cooperative Human-Robot Interface for Constrained Manipulation in Robot-Assisted Endonasal Surgery
by Jacinto Colan, Jun Nakanishi, Tadayoshi Aoyama and Yasuhisa Hasegawa
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(14), 4809; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10144809 - 13 Jul 2020
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3820
Abstract
Endoscopic endonasal surgery (EES) is a minimally invasive technique for removal of pituitary adenomas or cysts at the skull base. This approach can reduce the invasiveness and recovery time compared to traditional open surgery techniques. However, it represents challenges to surgeons because of [...] Read more.
Endoscopic endonasal surgery (EES) is a minimally invasive technique for removal of pituitary adenomas or cysts at the skull base. This approach can reduce the invasiveness and recovery time compared to traditional open surgery techniques. However, it represents challenges to surgeons because of the constrained workspace imposed by the nasal cavity and the lack of dexterity with conventional surgical instruments. While robotic surgical systems have been previously proposed for EES, issues concerned with proper interface design still remain. In this paper, we present a cooperative, compact, and versatile bimanual human-robot interface aimed to provide intuitive and safe operation in robot-assisted EES. The proposed interface is attached to a robot arm and holds a multi-degree-of-freedom (DOF) articulated forceps. In order to design the required functionalities in EES, we consider a simplified surgical task scenario, with four basic instrument operations such as positioning, insertion, manipulation, and extraction. The proposed cooperative strategy is based on the combination of force based robot control for tool positioning, a virtual remote-center-of-motion (VRCM) during insertion/extraction tasks, and the use of a serial-link interface for precise and simultaneous control of the position and the orientation of the forceps tip. Virtual workspace constraints and motion scaling are added to provide safe and smooth control of our robotic surgical system. We evaluate the performance and usability of our system considering reachability, object manipulability, and surgical dexterity in an anatomically realistic human head phantom compared to the use of conventional surgical instruments. The results demonstrate that the proposed system can improve the precision, smoothness and safety of the forceps operation during an EES. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotic Systems for Biomedical Applications)
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14 pages, 6939 KiB  
Article
Development of a Lightweight Prosthetic Hand for Patients with Amputated Fingers
by Wooseok Ryu, Youngjin Choi, Yong Je Choi and Sungon Lee
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(10), 3536; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10103536 - 20 May 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5913
Abstract
Finger amputations are the most common upper limb amputation, and they occur approximately 100 times more often than hand amputations. We developed a prosthetic hand for amputees with a thumb and metacarpal. In this case of amputation, the installation of actuators and electrical [...] Read more.
Finger amputations are the most common upper limb amputation, and they occur approximately 100 times more often than hand amputations. We developed a prosthetic hand for amputees with a thumb and metacarpal. In this case of amputation, the installation of actuators and electrical components is difficult because space is considerably limited owing to the residual metacarpal. This design issue is solved by installing actuators vertically between finger modules and the mounting part where the electrical parts are embedded. With this design, the arrangement between the palm of the patient and the fingers of the prosthetic hand can be adjusted as well. Weight is also an especially important design issue in the development of a practical prosthetic hand because the patient perceives that weight. Most prosthetic hands are attached to the residual limb of the amputee by compressing the contact surface between the product and the amputated body part of the patient. Heavy weight causes users to feel discomfort and fatigue over extended periods of usage. In this study, all frames used in the proposed prosthetic hand were fabricated from nylon using multi-jet-fusion three-dimensional printing. As a result, the weight of the developed prosthetic hand was only 152.32 g but still had the desired strength and stiffness. Each prosthetic finger has four-degree-of-freedom. The distal interphalangeal, proximal interphalangeal, and metacarpophalangeal joints are coupled and driven by power from an actuator, which is transferred to each joint through the tendons. Adduction, abduction, and self-adaptive grasping motions were passively realized using linear and torsional springs. The prototype was fabricated based on these design concepts and functions, and its functionality was verified in experiments using diverse objects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robotic Systems for Biomedical Applications)
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