A review on machine learning in flexible surgical and interventional robots: Where we are and where we are going

Minimally Invasive Procedures (MIPs) emerged as an alternative to more invasive surgical approaches, offering patient benefits such as smaller incisions, less pain, and shorter hospital stay. In one class of MIPs, where natural body lumens or small incisions are used to access deeper anatomical locations, Flexible Surgical and Interventional...

Follow-The-Leader Mechanisms in Medical Devices: A Review on Scientific and Patent Literature

Conventional medical instruments are not capable of passing through tortuous anatomy as required for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery due to their rigid shaft designs. Nevertheless, developments in minimally invasive surgery are pushing medical devices to become more dexterous. Amongst devices with controllable flexibility, so...

Human Modeling in Physical Human-Robot Interaction: A Brief Survey

The advancement and development of human modeling have greatly benefited from principles used in robotics, for instance, multibody dynamics laid the foundations for physics engines of human movement simulation, and the robotics and control theory were used to contextualize human sensorimotor control. There are many common interests and...

Magneto‐/ electro‐responsive polymers toward manufacturing, characterization, and biomedical/ soft robotic applications

Magneto-/ electro-responsive polymers (MERPs) are a class of stimuli-responsive materials that are actuated when triggered by external magnetic/ electric fields. MERPs exhibit rapid, reversible, and safe multi-functional and dynamic (i.e., changing with time) properties, which can effectively be manipulated at different length scales. These...

A review: Challenges and opportunities for artificial intelligence and robotics in the offshore wind sector

The UK has set plans to increase offshore wind capacity from 22GW to 154GW by 2030. With such tremendous growth, the sector is now looking to Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (RAI) in order to tackle lifecycle service barriers as to support sustainable and profitable offshore wind energy production. Today, RAI applications are...

Soft Robotic Grippers for Crop Handling or Harvesting: A Review

Nowadays, harvesting delicate and high-value fruits, vegetables and edible fungi requires a large input of manual human labor. The relatively low wages and many health problems the workforce faces make this profession increasingly unpopular. Meanwhile, robotic systems that selectively harvest crops are being developed. Whilst the moving platform...

Haptic training: Which types facilitate (re)learning of which motor task and for whom Answers by a review

The use of robots has attracted researchers to design numerous haptic training methods to support motor learning. However, investigations of new methods yielded inconclusive results regarding their effectiveness to enhance learning due to the diversity of tasks, haptic designs, participants skill level, and study protocols. In this review, we...

Robot technology in dentistry, part two of a systematic review: an overview of initiatives

Objectives: To provide dental practitioners and researchers with a comprehensive and transparent evidence-based overview of physical robot initiatives in all fields of dentistry. Data: Articles published since 1985 concerning primary data on physical robot technology in dentistry were selected. Characteristics of the papers were extracted...

Robot technology in dentistry, part one of a systematic review: literature characteristics

Objectives: To provide dental practitioners and researchers with a comprehensive and transparent evidence-based overview of the characteristics of literature regarding initiatives of robot technology in dentistry. Data: All articles in which robot technology in dentistry is described, except for non-scientific articles and articles containing...

Why human factors science is demonstrably necessary: historical and evolutionary foundations

We review the theoretical foundation for the need for human factors science. Over the past 2.8 million years, humans and tools have co-evolved. However, in the last century, technology is introduced at a rate that exceeds human evolution. The proliferation of computers and, more recently, robots, introduces new cognitive demands, as the human...

Insect-inspired robots: Bridging biological and artificial systems

This review article aims to address common research questions in hexapod robotics. How can we build intelligent autonomous hexapod robots that can exploit their biomechanics, morphology, and computational systems, to achieve autonomy, adaptability, and energy efficiency comparable to small living creatures, such as insects? Are insects good...

Engagement in Human-Agent Interaction: An Overview

Engagement is a concept of the utmost importance in human-computer interaction, not only for informing the design and implementation of interfaces, but also for enabling more sophisticated interfaces capable of adapting to users. While the notion of engagement is actively being studied in a diverse set of domains, the term has been used to...

Human motion trajectory prediction: a survey

With growing numbers of intelligent autonomous systems in human environments, the ability of such systems to perceive, understand, and anticipate human behavior becomes increasingly important. Specifically, predicting future positions of dynamic agents and planning considering such predictions are key tasks for self-driving vehicles, service...

Quality of Care Perceived by Older Patients and Caregivers in Integrated Care Pathways With Interviewing Assistance From a Social Robot: Noninferiority Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Society is facing a global shortage of 17 million health care workers, along with increasing health care demands from a growing number of older adults. Social robots are being considered as solutions to part of this problem. Objective: Our objective is to evaluate the quality of care perceived by patients and caregivers for an...

Embodiment, presence, and their intersections

Subjective experience of human control over remote, artificial, or virtual limbs has traditionally been investigated from two separate angles: presence research originates from teleoperation, aiming to capture to what extent the user feels like actually being in the remote or virtual environment. Embodiment captures to what extent a virtual...

Sensorimotor manipulations of the balance control loop-beyond imposed external perturbations

Standing balance relies on the integration of multiple sensory inputs to generate the motor commands required to stand. Mechanical and sensory perturbations elicit compensatory postural responses that are interpreted as a window into the sensorimotor processing involved in balance control. Popular methods involve imposed external...

Robot-aided assessment of lower extremity functions: A review

The assessment of sensorimotor functions is extremely important to understand the health status of a patient and its change over time. Assessments are necessary to plan and adjust the therapy in order to maximize the chances of individual recovery. Nowadays, however, assessments are seldom used in clinical practice due to administrative...