Medical Robotics Course

Identify the robot’s main parts: manipulator, pedestal, controller, end effectors, and power source. The manipulator includes base and arm; pedestal provides support; controller interfaces with humans; end effectors include attachments.

Explore core robot characteristics—payload, reach, precision, and repeatability—and see how sensors enable precise, repeatable robotic surgery while complementing doctors.

Robots boost productivity, safety, quality, and consistency, and work in hazardous environments without fatigue. They offer repeatable precision and multi-tasking but struggle with emergencies, high costs, and workforce displacement.

Robotics in healthcare streamline surgeries, reduce infection risk, and free time for patient interaction, while robots support room disinfection and medicine identification to improve efficiency and care.

Explore robot kinematics as geometry of spatial relations and movements. Link motors to coordinates through transformations; end effector lies where needed.

Medical robotics enable precise interventions through a design process that decomposes procedures into discrete tasks, reduces complexity, and decides which are robotic-enabled versus manual, with prototyping to integrate into procedures.

Design for medical robotics should prioritize efficiency in the large U.S. healthcare sector, while examining historic trends in healthcare spending versus GDP from CMS and AHRQ measures.

Trace the background of medical robotics from 1980s research to applications. Compare human judgment and dexterity with robotic geometric accuracy and fatigue resistance, noting autonomy and haptics limits.

A minimally invasive surgical robot (mis robot) supports the surgeon with preoperative planning, intraoperative registration, and instrument control, while addressing post-operative verification and possible non-invasive embodiments.

Explore time- and space-based human-robot relationships in medical robotics, outlining five relation types: cell mode, shared workspace, direct contact, shared tasks, and shared resources, governed by synchronization, cooperation, and collaboration.

Explore human robot collaboration (HRC) as humans and robots share resources and skills to achieve a mutual goal through joint action, perception, intention estimation, learning, and action planning.

Explore physical human-robot interaction, focusing on safety and dependability to keep patients safe, with ethics discussed later in this topic.

Explore teleoperation with haptic feedback, including direct, augmented, and virtual teleoperation for micro to nano manipulation, and learn how haptic devices render tactile and kinesthetic feedback for medical applications.

Trace the medical imaging timeline from the first x-ray image in 1895 to MRI in 1973, highlighting milestones such as the first practical fluoroscope, ultrasound, gamma camera, and computed tomography.

Explore the electromagnetic spectrum in medical imaging, covering MRI, CT, X-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, gamma, and visible light, and how radiation energy affects interaction and patient safety.

Explore how contrast enables visualization in diagnostic imaging, using microscopes as an analogy, and compare how different imaging modalities provide distinct physical contrasts with varying advantages and disadvantages.

Explore x-ray modalities such as radiography, fluoroscopy, and computed tomography. Learn how x-ray contrast depends on tissue density and atomic composition, and assess absorption, scattering, and the radiation dose.

Explore radiography, the most common x-ray imaging modality, producing static anatomy images on film, with fluorescent screens converting x-rays to visible light and a gantry-mounted tube, table, and wall stand.

Computed tomography combines x-ray data with computer processing to produce cross-sectional images, offering more detail than conventional X-rays. The tube and detector rotate around the patient to collect multi-angle profiles.

Learn the CT scanner components, rotating tube, cowling, detectors, central patient table, and control console—and how to read CT slice images of the kidney, liver, spleen, and brain ventricles.

Examine how MRI uses pulse sequences, TR and T controls, and Fourier-based tomography to produce tissue images, while addressing noise, claustrophobia, and metal safety concerns for patients.

Explore ultrasound imaging, using high-frequency sound waves (often over 1 MHz) transmitted as pulses and echoes to produce real-time images of abdominal and reproductive organs.

The physicist ensures high image quality through routine equipment checks that safeguard patient safety. They monitor radiation dose, tailor dye doses to patients, and assess allergy risks to protect safety.

Identify medical physicist skills, including measuring radiation output and calculating tissue dose. Develop safety practices, evaluate equipment, perform image processing, computer programming and networking, and teach physics to radiology residents.

Robotic technology in medical imaging enhances diagnostic imaging with precise, automated systems that improve accuracy, efficiency, and patient experience, enabling robot-assisted surgery and image-guided interventions.

Explore image guided surgery (IGS) from real-time imaging to robot-assisted minimally invasive procedures, combining preoperative MRI and intraoperative iMRI visuals for precise tumor removal while protecting critical structures.

Boost precision, flexibility, and control with robotic surgery by improving visualization, enabling delicate, complex procedures and minimally invasive approaches that reduce pain, infection risk, recovery time, and visible scars.

This case demonstrates using 16-detector spiral CT 3D volumetric imaging to evaluate hematuria, revealing a right ureteral stone with dilatation and obstruction, highlighting 3D CT urography in urinary tract assessment.

Examine a case study of coronary artery disease using 16-detector CT coronary angiography to assess left coronary artery stenosis, non-calcified plaque, and beta blocker preparation.

This coronary artery disease case features a 67-year-old man with hypertension and high cholesterol, showing 70% LAD stenosis on CT angiography, with CT sensitivity around 95% vs nuclear stress tests.

Trace the history of robotic surgical systems and spotlight the da Vinci system's 3D HD visualization, endo wrist arms, precision, applications, cost savings, and remote surgery potential.

Explore the significance of the da Vinci surgical system, its FDA approval in 2000, and its widespread adoption in the US and Europe, including the console-controlled, 3D high-definition view.

Robotic assisted surgery uses specialized robotic arms and a 3D magnified camera to mimic the surgeon’s hands, enabling small-incision, minimally invasive, console-controlled procedures with rapid recovery.

Robotic surgery offers smaller incisions, greater precision, tremor-free movements, magnified 3d visualization for inside-body steps, and lower infection risk, reduced blood loss, and shorter hospital stays.

Debunk myths about robotic surgery by noting the surgeon controls the robot with safety mechanisms, while robotic assisted surgery lowers risks and provides real time 3D views over open surgery.

This lecture demonstrates robotic gynecological surgery, highlighting benefits over open surgery including smaller incisions, less blood loss, reduced pain, and faster recovery, demonstrated with the da Vinci system.

Explore robotic prostate surgery for prostate cancer, comparing open, laparoscopic, and robotic assisted approaches. Observe how the da Vinci system lets the surgeon view and precisely control tissue removal.

Utilize robot-assisted laparoscopic kidney surgery with the da Vinci system for radical and partial nephrectomy in kidney stone, cancer, or failure cases. The video shows setup, surgeon control, and outcome.

Robotic colorectal surgery removes cancerous colon portions, benign tumors, and polyps, then joins the ends. It uses a single small incision with precise robotic guidance from surgeons.

Explore single-site robotic gallbladder surgery, highlighting one-incision techniques through the navel, versus traditional multi-port and open approaches, with minimally invasive robotic instrumentation.

Leverage robot-assisted surgery to deliver minimally invasive, highly precise and flexible procedures with faster recovery, while contrasting with conventional manual techniques that involve long incisions and longer hospital stays.

Explore how simulation supports robotic surgery training by examining feasibility, validity types, reliability, and acceptability across Mimic Divi Trainer, MDPD, Da Vinci Skill Simulator, and Ros.

Explore emerging trends in medical robotics as sensing, planning, and acting techniques enable rapid advances in robotic surgeries, human-robot collaboration, and robotic ultrasound systems.

Explore robotic ultrasound imaging and visual servoing challenges, comparing 2D frame access with 3D volumetric data streaming, and outlining the need for open platforms and remote control.

Examine custom design robotics for teleoperated ultrasound, featuring MGI R3, Melody, Remedy, and Tools systems with multi-degree-of-freedom arms, force sensing, and remote sonography.

commercial robots enable teleoperated ultrasound with ur5, torque sensing, external force sensor, and haptic remote control; not evaluated in vivo, safety improves via filtered commands and reduced velocity.

Collaborative robotic ultrasound assistance enables physicians to perform imaging faster, more precise, and reproducible, while collaborative therapy guided interventions may occur with fewer or no assistants, illustrated by stereo imaging.

Explore autonomous robotic ultrasound systems that generate task plans and control movement to acquire ultrasound for diagnostic or interventional use, including autonomous image acquisition, therapy guidance, Hi-FU, and trajectory planning.

Explore nanorobots, miniature 1 to 100 nanometer devices that enter the bloodstream to surveil the body, sense changes, diagnose conditions, and support real-time monitoring with next-generation software platforms.

Explore challenges in manufacturing nanobots, from high development costs and power sources to regulatory compliance, data security, waste management, and material choices affecting lifespan and safe removal.

Explore how nano robotic systems enable targeted drug delivery and imaging at the nanoscale. Swarm robotics enable diagnostics and cancer therapy applications, with research-phase development and potential cardiovascular benefits.

Explore nanobots for cancer treatment, tiny robots that circulate in blood. They sense target molecules, diagnose and deliver therapies across the body.

Explore nanorobots market dynamics, highlighting advances in molecular robot technology for healthcare, DNA nanotechnology in regenerative medicine, disease identification such as diabetes, and commercialization, taxes, and customs duties impacting growth.

Nanobots promise to transform healthcare by enabling early diagnosis, targeted drug delivery, disease monitoring, precision surgery, and tailored treatments, while reducing workloads and mental stress for clinicians.

Explore the future of nanobots in medical diagnostics, replacing legacy tools with atomic-level health monitoring. Support early infection detection and disease identification through in vitro imaging and biopsy.

Explore swarm robotics, where a group of robots collaborates as an intelligent network with onboard sensing, processing, and communication, exhibiting navigation, spatial organization, and precise decision making.

Discover how AI, with robots mediating the technology, transforms health care by improving diagnosis, treatment, and patient monitoring, while reducing costs and speeding medical records management.

Examine AI in diagnosis and treatment, noting improved capabilities over 50 years, but ongoing integration barriers with clinical workflows and electronic health records.

This lecture covers AI in healthcare challenges, including data privacy and security, patient safety and accuracy, training algorithms, IT-system integration, physician trust, and federal regulatory compliance.

Explore the future of artificial intelligence in health care, including AI powered tools, deep learning for disease detection, personalized treatments, and automated drug discovery, while addressing adoption challenges.