Multifactorial approach to rehabilitation robots — From clinic to research

Recent advances in robotic surgery have helped to realise many of the potentials of minimally invasive surgery with improved consistency, safety and accuracy. Current surgical robots, including many still in laboratory development phases, are able to demonstrate minimal invasiveness, high accuracy and dexterity but are characterized by high cost, large bulk, complex set up requirements and poor human-robot interfaces. These disadvantages have limited the uptake of the technology and its wider clinical impact. Research in medical robotics is intrinsically multi-disciplinary; it operates across traditional disciplinary boundaries, and routinely transfers, customizes and integrates technologies from a diverse range of research fields. The purpose of this talk is to highlight the design, ergonomic issues, as well as potential translational barriers that need to be overcome for the development of future robotic platforms that are smart, pervasive, and can be seamlessly integrated into the normal surgical workflow. It outlines the evolving clinical demand, emerging technological trends, and the need to focus on economic impact and direct patient benefit when developing new generations of sophisticated yet low-cost and accessible robotic platforms.