Robotic Manipulation System Design and Control for Non-Contact Remote Diagnosis in Otolaryngology: Digital Twin Approach

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the need for non-contact medical robots to alleviate the heavy workload and emotional stress experienced by healthcare professionals while preventing infection. In response, we propose a non-contact robotic diagnostic system for otolaryngology clinics, utilizing a digital twin model for initial design optimization. The system employs a master-slave robot architecture, with the slave robot comprising a flexible endoscope manipulation robot and a parallel robot arm for controlling additional medical instruments. The novel 4 degrees of freedom (DOF) control mechanism enables the single robotic arm to handle the endoscope, facilitating the process compared to the traditional two-handed approach. Phantom experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed flexible endoscope manipulation system in terms of diagnosis completion time, NASA task load index (NASA-TLX), and subjective risk score. The results demonstrate the system's usability and its potential to alternate conventional diagnosis. © 2013 IEEE.

On the Design of Integrated Tele-Monitoring/Operation System for Therapeutic Devices in Isolation Intensive Care Unit

We design a central controller system (CCS) and a tele-controlled system (TCS) with an aim of developing the integrated tele-monitoring/operation system that can enable the medical staff to tele-monitor the state of therapeutic devices utilized in the isolation intensive care unit (ICU) and to tele-operate its user interfaces. To achieve this aim, we survey the medical staff for medical requirements first and define the design guideline for tele-monitoring/operation functionality and field applicability. In designing the CCS, we focus on realizing the device having intuitive and user-friendly interfaces so that the medical staff can use the device conveniently without pre-training. Further, we attempt to implement the TCS capable of manipulating various types of user interfaces of the therapeutic device (e.g., touch screen, buttons, and knobs) without failure. As two core components of the TCS, the precision XY-positioner having a maximum positioning error of about 0.695 mm and the end-effector having three-degrees-of-freedom motion (i.e., pressing, gripping, and rotating) are applied to the system. In the experiment conducted for assessing functionality, it is investigated that the time taken to complete the tele-operation after logging into the CCS is less than 1 minute. Furthermore, the result of field demonstration for focus group shows that the proposed system could be applied practically to the medical fields when the functional reliability is improved. IEEE

An Investigation into the Feasibility of Remote Object Manipulation Using Consumer Virtual Reality Hardware and Decoupled Mapping Control

With the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many health workers in hospitals, nursing homes and quarantine facilities were put at increased health risk in their workplace. One effective solution to reduce this risk is to use Telerobotics which enables health workers to carry out their tasks remotely. Such a system must be able to perform a wide range of tasks in an unpredictable environment. This research paper will focus on the pick and place of small objects, which is one of the most common tasks in health care settings. This research designs a prototype telerobotic system using an innovative and new control method to remotely pick and place small objects and will perform the following test: An operator will use a virtual reality headset to remotely control a robot arm located more than 44 kilometres away from the operator and pick several common everyday objects and place them into a container. By developing this proof of concept prototype, this research will help to accelerate the adoption of telerobotic technologies in health care and other industries. © 2021 Australasian Robotics and Automation Association. All rights reserved.