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Minimally invasive endoscopic surgery and minimally invasive surgery challenge surgical skills due to the operator's separation from the surgical field and the requirements for long instruments with limited dexterity. To overcome the drawbacks of conventional endoscopic instruments computer‐enhanced telemanipulation systems and robotic systems have been developed in the past. This paper summarizes the requirements for minimally invasive robotic assisted surgery and describes a new robot that has been developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The discussion includes a description of the robotic arm, the appropriate control laws, as well as the requirements for actuated and sensorized instruments.

Robot-assisted system for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has been attracting more and more attentions. Compared with a traditional MIS, the robot-assisted system for MIS is able to overcome or reduce defects, such as poor hand-eye coordination, heavy labour intensity and limited motion of the instrument. The purpose of this paper is to design a novel robotic system for MIS applications.

A robotic system with three separate slave arms for MIS has been designed. In the proposed robot, a new mechanism was designed as the remote centre motion (RCM) mechanism to restrain the movement of instrument or laparoscope around the incision. Moreover, an improved instrument without coupling motion between wrist and grippers was developed to enhance its manipulability. A control system architecture was also developed, and an intuitive control method was applied to realize hand-eye coordination of the operator.

For the RCM mechanism, the workspace was analyzed and the positioning accuracy of the remote centre point was tested. The results show that the RCM mechanism can be applied to MIS. Furthermore, the master-slave trajectory tracking experiments reveal that slave robots are able to follow the movement of the master manipulators well. Finally, the feasibility of the robot-assisted system for MIS is proved by performing animal experiments successfully.

This paper offers a novel robotic system for MIS. It can accomplish the anticipated results.

The purpose of this paper is to consider surgical robotics, with a focus on technology and design issues for remote‐mode operation assistance. The investigation leads to the definition of the technical characteristics of a co‐robotic positioning device (CRPD), to be developed in support of a split‐duty approach to planning. The expected characteristics and advantages are outlined, including the operation potential of special‐purpose devices (e.g. an automatic changer for surgical tools) and of scope‐driven enhancers (e.g. the exploration of the intervention theatre).

The paper addresses example developments based on projects performed with the co‐operation of other robot laboratories in Munich and Paris. The CRPD concept is applied in relation to the DLR KineMedic^® arm (developed by the Munich laboratory), and with the LRP prototype mini‐arm (built by the Paris laboratory).

Minimally‐invasive surgery deserves increasing attention to reduce post‐operative hospital stays and to reduce complications. This leads to new trends in robotics, to facilitate safe, fast and accurate remote manipulation, and integrated computer‐aided implements. The features of the example CRPD design are summarised for the two cases.

The overall comments consider minimally‐invasive robotic surgery as a given intervention practice in the near future, and the split‐duty approach, supported by the CRPD technology, as a valuable aid for human‐robot co‐operation, according to the “best‐of‐skills” idea, supporting intervention under the surgeon's control.

This investigation shows new results aimed at expanding the operation versatility of robotics with integrated intelligence, to enhance scope‐driven alternatives and out‐of‐reach handling with improved dexterity and safe autonomic processing.

Robotic systems for laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery (MIS) always end up with highly sophisticated mechanisms and control schemes – making it a long and hard development process with a steep price. This paper aims to propose and realize a new, efficient and convenient strategy for building effective control systems for surgical and even other complex robotic systems.

A novel method that takes advantage of the modularization concept by integrating two middleware technologies (robot operating system and robotic technology middleware) into a common architecture based on the strengths of both was designed and developed.

Tests of the developed control system showed very low time-delay between the master and slave sides; good movement representation on the slave manipulator; and high positional and operational accuracy. Moreover, the new development strategy trial came with much higher efficiency and lower costs.

This method results in a modularized and distributed control system that is amenable to collaboratively develop; convenient to modify and update; componentized and easy to extend; mutually independent among subsystems; and practicable to be running and communicating across multiple operating systems. However, experiments show that surgical training and updates of the robotic system are still required to achieve better proficiency for completing complex minimally invasive surgical operations with the proposed and developed system.

This research proposed and developed a novel modularization design method and a novel architecture for building a distributed teleoperation control system for laparoscopic MIS.

This paper aims to provide an insight into recent advancements and developments of robotics for Natural Orifice Transluminal Surgery (NOTES) procedures.

Following an introduction that highlights the evolution from Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) to NOTES in the medical field, this paper reviews the main robotics systems that have been designed and implemented for MIS and NOTES, summarising their advantages and limitations and remarking the technological challenges and the requirements that still should be addressed and fulfilled.

The state-of-the-art presented in this paper shows that the majority of the platforms created for NOTES are laboratory prototypes, and their performances are still far from being optimal. New solutions are required to solve the problems confronted by the proposed systems such as the limited number of DOFs, the limited resolution, the optimal fixation and stiffening of the instruments for enabling stable and precise operation, the effective transmission of forces to the tip tools, the improvement of the force feedback feeling and the proper visualization and spatial orientation of the surgical field. Advances in robotics can contribute significantly to the development and future implementation of the NOTES procedure.

This paper highlights the current trends and challenges ahead in robotics applied to NOTES procedure.

Teleoperated minimally invasive surgical robots can significantly enhance a surgeon's accuracy, dexterity and visualization. However, current commercially available systems do not include significant haptic (force and tactile) feedback to the operator. This paper describes experiments to characterize this problem, as well as several methods to provide haptic feedback in order to improve surgeon's performance. There exist a variety of sensing and control methods that enable haptic feedback, although a number of practical considerations, e.g. cost, complexity and biocompatibility, present significant challenges. The ability of teleoperated robot‐assisted surgical systems to measure and display haptic information leads to a number of additional exciting clinical and scientific opportunities, such as active operator assistance through “virtual fixtures” and the automatic acquisition of tissue properties.

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is a cost‐effective alternative to the open surgery whereby essentially the same operations are performed using specialized instruments designed to fit into the body through several tiny punctures instead of one large incision. The EndoBots (Endoscopic Robots) described here are designed for collaborative operation between the surgeon and the robotic device. The surgeon can program the device to be operated completely manually, collaboratively where motion of the robotic device in certain directions is under computer control and in others under manual surgeon control, or autonomously where the complete device is under computer control. Furthermore, the robotic tools can be quickly changed from a robotic docking station, allowing different robotic tools to be used in an operation.

The purpose of this paper is to review the progress that one innovative firm is making in the development and deployment of robots to actually perform surgery on humans with a doctor's guidance.

Detailed dialog with the development team for the da Vinci® Surgical System at Intuitive Surgical and with several medical institutions that have deployed the system.

The success of applying robotic technology to surgery only confirms that human activity and automation are ever closer bound together. The robot provides surgical advantages such as improved visualization, precision of movement, range of movement, ergonomics, and dexterity, and often times better procedure outcomes.

Medical technology can be improved by the linking surgeons with robotics. Surgery joins other once thought of as human only activities, such as reading books, filling orders, etc. which can be improved with robotics.

Other hospitals may find the innovation and success of robotic surgery to be of value to their medical services menu.

This paper aims to illustrate the growing importance of surgical robots by providing a short historical background and details of a selection of today’s products and their applications.

Following a short introduction, this first provides an historical perspective. It then discusses systems used in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This is followed by examples of products aimed at other surgical applications and, finally, brief concluding comments are drawn.

The concept of robotic surgery arose in the 1960s and trials commenced in the 1980s. The business is now in a highly dynamic phase with numerous recent product launches and a growing number late-stage developments. MIS systems are attracting much interest but robotic technology is also being applied to many additional surgical procedures.

This provides an insight into the emergence and commercialisation of robotic surgical systems.