关键词： Concurrent design   multidisciplinary systems   mechatronics   robot manipulator   fuzzy logic  

摘要： This article details a holistic concurrent design framework, based on fuzzy logic, which is suitable for multidisciplinary systems. The methodology attempts to enhance communication and collaboration between different disciplines through introducing the universal notion of satisfaction and expressing the holistic behavior of multidisciplinary systems using the notion of energy. Throughout the design process, it uses fuzzy logic to formalize subjective aspects of design including the impact of the designer's attitude, resulting in the simplification of the multi-objective constrained optimization process. In the final phase, the methodology adjusts the designer's subjective attitude based on a holistic system performance by utilizing an energy-based model of multidisciplinary systems. The efficiency of the resulting design framework is illustrated by improving the design of a 5-degree-of-freedom industrial robot manipulator.

关键词： Robotics   Laparoscopy   Sacrocolpopexy   Prolapse   Vagina   Pelvic prolapse surgery  

摘要： Pelvic organ prolapse is a common condition affecting a significant number of women in the United States. There are currently three restorative abdominal surgical approaches for pelvic organ prolapse, including open, laparoscopic, and robotic sacrocolpopexy. Robotic sacrocolpopexy has been on the rise since its advent in 2004. Robotic surgery is a new and exciting technology that currently demonstrates long and short-term outcome equivalence with other abdominal approaches to sacrocolpopexy, as well as great potential for future improvements.

关键词： Hysterectomy   Minimally-invasive surgery   Laparoscopic hysterectomy   Robotic hysterectomy   Vaginal hysterectomy  

摘要： The objective of this study is to describe changes in rates of types of hysterectomy at a tertiary care community teaching hospital since the introduction of laparoscopic and robotic techniques and to determine the effect of surgeon characteristics on route of hysterectomy. This is a retrospective analysis of types of hysterectomies performed for benign disease during five different years (1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009) at a large community teaching hospital. Hospital discharge data was reviewed to identify all hysterectomies performed during the first six months of each year of the study. Hospital charts were reviewed and patient characteristics, indication for surgery, type of hysterectomy and surgeon characteristics were recorded. Hysterectomies performed for malignancy, suspected malignancy, or postpartum hemorrhage were excluded. Types of hysterectomies included abdominal (AH), vaginal (VH), laparoscopic-assisted vaginal (LAVH), total laparoscopic (TLH), laparoscopic supracervical (LSH) and robotic-assisted (RH). The progressive introduction of newer minimally invasive surgical techniques (LAVH, TLH, LSH, and RH) resulted in an overall reduction in the abdominal hysterectomy rate from 77 to 35.2 % during the time of the study. The majority of abdominal, laparoscopic supracervical and robotic hysterectomies were performed by generalists, while the majority of vaginal, laparoscopic-assisted vaginal and total laparoscopic hysterectomies were performed by fellowship trained subspecialists. Minimally invasive hysterectomy techniques significantly reduced the rate of abdominal hysterectomies. The LSH and RH were the techniques utilized by generalists as their most preferred minimally invasive surgical approaches to hysterectomy.

关键词： Image-guided intervention   Minimally invasive surgery   Neurosurgery   Robotic surgery  

摘要： BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, advances in image guidance, endoscopy, and tube-shaft instruments have allowed for the further development of keyhole transcranial endoscope-assisted microsurgery, utilizing smaller craniotomies and minimizing exposure and manipulation of unaffected brain tissue. Although such approaches offer the possibility of shorter operating times, reduced morbidity and mortality, and improved long-term outcomes, the technical skills required to perform such surgery are inevitably greater than for traditional open surgical techniques, and they have not been widely adopted by neurosurgeons. Surgical robotics, which has the ability to improve visualization and increase dexterity, therefore has the potential to enhance surgical performance. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of surgical robots in keyhole transcranial endoscope-assisted microsurgery. METHODS: The technical challenges faced by surgeons utilizing keyhole craniotomies were reviewed, and a thorough appraisal of presently available robotic systems was performed. RESULTS: Surgical robotic systems have the potential to incorporate advances in augmented reality, stereoendoscopy, and jointed-wrist instruments, and therefore to significantly impact the field of keyhole neurosurgery. To date, over 30 robotic systems have been applied to neurosurgical procedures. The vast majority of these robots are best described as supervisory controlled, and are designed for stereotactic or image-guided surgery. Few telesurgical robots are suitable for keyhole neurosurgical approaches, and none are in widespread clinical use in the field. CONCLUSION: New robotic platforms in minimally invasive neurosurgery must possess clear and unambiguous advantages over conventional approaches if they are to achieve significant clinical penetration.

关键词： Robotic assisted   Laparoscopic surgery   Training   Learning curve   Parallel learning  

摘要： Objective: To define the learning curve of robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery for prostatectomy (RALP) and upper tract procedures, and show the differences between the classical approach to training and the new concept of parallel learning. Methods: This mini-review is based on the results of a Medline search using the keywords 'da Vinci', 'robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery', 'training', 'teaching' and 'learning curve'. Results: For RALP and robot-assisted upper tract surgery, a learning curve of 8150 procedures is quoted, with most articles proposing that 30-40 cases are needed to carry out the procedure safely. There is no consensus about which endpoints should be measured. In the traditional proctored training model, the surgeon learns the procedure linearly, following the sequential order of the surgical steps. A more recent approach is to specify the relative difficulty of each step and to train the surgeon simultaneously in several steps of equal difficulty. The entire procedure is only performed after all the steps are mastered in a timely manner. Recently, a 'warm-up' before robotic surgery has been shown to be beneficial for successful surgery in the operating room. Conclusion: There is no clear definition of the duration of the effective learning curve for RALP and robotic upper tract surgery. The concept of stepwise, parallel learning has the potential to accelerate the learning process and to make sure that

关键词： muscles   myotube   actuator system   Cellular Microenvironment   vascularization   functional integration   Skeletal muscle   Millimeter   muscle development   Spatial Organization   mechanical environment  

摘要： Skeletal muscle is a scalable actuator system used throughout nature from the millimeter to meter length scales and over a wide range of frequencies and force regimes. This adaptability has spurred interest in using engineered skeletal muscle to power soft robotics devices and in biotechnology and medical applications. However, the challenges to doing this are similar to those facing the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine fields;specifically, how do we translate our understanding of myogenesis in vivo to the engineering of muscle constructs in vitro to achieve functional integration with devices. To do this researchers are developing a number of ways to engineer the cellular microenvironment to guide skeletal muscle tissue formation. This includes understanding the role of substrate stiffness and the mechanical environment, engineering the spatial organization of biochemical and physical cues to guide muscle alignment, and developing bioreactors for mechanical and electrical conditioning. Examples of engineered skeletal muscle that can potentially be used in soft robotics include 2D cantilever-based skeletal muscle actuators and 3D skeletal muscle tissues engineered using scaffolds or directed self-organization. Integration into devices has led to basic muscle-powered devices such as grippers and pumps as well as more sophisticated muscle-powered soft robots that walk and swim. Looking forward, current, and future challenges include identifying the best source of muscle precursor cells to expand and differentiate into myotubes, replacing cardiomyocytes with skeletal muscle tissue as the bio-actuator of choice for soft robots, and vascularization and innervation to enable control and nourishment of larger muscle tissue constructs. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

关键词： Human-robot social interaction   Non-verbal communication   Experienced engagement   Robotics knowledge  

摘要： Communication between socially assistive robots and humans might be facilitated by intuitively understandable mechanisms. To investigate the effects of some key nonverbal gestures on a human's own engagement and robot engagement experienced by humans, participants read a series of instructions to a robot that responded with nods, blinks, changes in gaze direction, or a combination of these. Unbeknown to the participants, the robot had no form of speech processing or gesture recognition, but simply measured speech volume levels, responding with gestures whenever a lull in sound was detected. As measured by visual analogue scales, engagement of participants was not differentially affected by the different responses of the robot. However, their perception of the robot's engagement in the task, its likability and its understanding of the instructions depended on the gesture presented, with nodding being the most effective response. Participants who self-reported greater robotics knowledge reported higher overall engagement and greater success at developing a relationship with the robot. However, self-reported robotics knowledge did not differentially affect the impact of robot gestures. This suggests that greater familiarity with robotics may help to maximise positive experiences for humans involved in human robot interactions without affecting the impact of the type of signal sent by the robot. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

关键词： Bio-inspired robotic head   Visual saliency   Eye-head coordination   Scene understanding  

摘要： This paper presents a robotic head for social robots to attend to scene saliency with bio-inspired saccadic behaviors. Scene saliency is determined by measuring low-level static scene information, motion, and object prior knowledge. Towards the extracted saliency spots, the designed robotic head is able to turn gazes in a saccadic manner while obeying eye-head coordination laws with the proposed control scheme. The results of the simulation study and actual applications show the effectiveness of the proposed method in discovering of scene saliency and human-like head motion. The proposed techniques could possibly be applied to social robots to improve social sense and user experience in human-robot interaction.

关键词： Adaptive learning   Cognitive robotics   Evolutionary computation   Dynamic problems  

摘要： Brain-like robotic approaches aim to reproduce the complex processes occurring within the biological brains to achieve a higher level of autonomy. One of the key aspects of these approaches is dynamic learning, that is, how to provide the cognitive architectures that control de robot with adaptive learning capabilities. Several options have been considered in this line in the field of Cognitive Robotics, although the development of a proper memory system has provided the best practical results up to now. This work also follows this approach, seeking to show the advantages of using a Long-Term Memory (LTM) for optimizing the adaptive learning capabilities of a cognitive robot in dynamic environments. Specifically, a procedural LTM that stores basic models and behaviours is included in the evolutionary-based Multilevel Darwinist Brain (MDB) cognitive architecture. The LTM management system that has been developed to control when a model must be stored or replaced is presented here in detail. Moreover, a ShortTerm Memory (STM) sub-system included in the MDB is also explained due to its strong relationship with the operation of the LTM. The LTM elements are tested in theoretical functions and in a simulated example using the AIBO robot in a dynamic context with successful adaptive learning results.

摘要： The article evaluates the SR-48 robotic collision sensor from ATI Industrial Automation.