A Haptic-enabled Teleoperated Robotic Platform with Vision and Artificial Intelligence Capabilities

近年来，由于机器人辅助手术的有效性，触觉遥控机器人学受到了越来越多的关注。为操作员提供触觉反馈提供了一个额外的链接，与单独的视觉/音频反馈相比，该链接潜在地提高了性能。路透社最近的分析显示，2017-2023年期间，医疗机器人的市场预期增长率为20.8%。因此，外科机器人的研究进展对加拿大的医疗保健和不断发展的生物医药产业都具有迫在眉睫的重要性。触觉遥控机器人可用于操作员因污染或暴露在危险材料或辐射(如X射线)中而极其危险的环境中。另一方面，遥控机器人平台可以用于太空手术和遥测。宇航员目前在国际空间站(ISS)上长时间居住，这对创伤或医疗紧急情况构成了很高的可能性。因此，越来越需要为太空中的宇航员提供安全的医疗和手术护理。国际空间站的宇航员可以帮助地球上有经验的外科医生通过远程操作的机器人平台进行治疗程序。尽管最近取得了进展，但触觉遥控机器人仍然面临着许多挑战，需要在控制、通信和人机交互方面进行进一步的研究，并为克服与稳定性、性能和安全性相关的问题提供了重要的研究机会。所要求的设备是一个高清晰度触觉设备和一个6自由度机器人，是市场上唯一经济实惠的解决方案，可以加快触觉和远程机器人领域的研究项目。拥有灵活的开放式体系结构(在matbR/Simulinkr中)还将简化各种控制方法的快速集成和适应不同的应用，从而增加设备的使用量。申请者和合作者的研究计划将立即从所要求的设备中受益，包括：(I)用于太空手术和遥测的远程机器人平台，(Ii)用于医疗干预(如心脏导管插入术)的图像引导的连续体机器人，以及(Iii)移动机器人的触觉定位、测绘和远程操纵。所要求的设备将安装在校园内其他研究人员可以访问的区域，以最大限度地利用这些设备，并满足各种研究计划的需求。博士后研究员、研究生和本科生将接受培训，操作最先进的触觉机器人系统，学习先进的控制和实验技术，这些对他们的学习和加拿大医疗保健和其他行业的高需求非常重要。除了TMU，这一新设备还将扩大医院和工业合作伙伴的机器人研究能力。

Haptic-enabled telerobotics has received an increasing attention in the recent years due to the effectiveness of robot-assisted procedures. Providing haptic feedback for operators provides an additional link that potentially improves performance compared to visual/audio feedbacks alone. Recent analysis by Reuters reveals an expected market growth of 20.8% for medical robotics during 2017-2023. Therefore, research progress in surgical robotics is of imminent importance to both healthcare and growing biomedical industry of Canada. Haptic-enabled telerobotics can be used in environments where the presence of operators is extremely dangerous due to contamination or exposure to hazardous material or radiations such as X-Ray. On the other hand, a teleoperated robotic platform can be used for space surgery and telemetry. Astronauts are currently living on the International Space Station (ISS) for extended intervals, which poses a high probability for trauma or medical emergencies. Therefore, there is an increasing need for provision of safe medical and surgical care to astronauts in space. Astronauts in the ISS can assist experienced surgeons on earth to conduct treatment procedures via a teleoperated robotic platform remotely. Despite recent progress, haptic-enabled telerobotics is still facing numerous challenges that require further research in control, communication and human-machine interaction and presents significant research opportunities to overcome issues related to stability, performance, and safety. The requested equipment, a high-definition haptic device and a 6 degrees-of-freedom robot, is the only economic solution in the market that is readily available and can expedite research programs in the fields of haptics and telerobotics. Having a flexible open architecture (in MATLABr/Simulinkr) will also ease rapid integration of various control methods and accommodation of different applications, leading to the increased usage of the equipment. The research programs of the applicants and collaborators that will immediately benefit from the requested equipment include: (i) telerobotic platforms for space surgery and telemetry, (ii) image-guided continuum robots for medical interventions such as cardiac catheterization, and (iii) haptic-enabled localization, mapping, and telemanipulation of mobile robots. The requested equipment will be installed in a zone accessible to other researchers across the campus to maximize its use and to meet the needs of versatile research programs. Postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students will be trained to operate the state-of-the-art haptic-enabled robotic system, and to learn advanced control and experimental techniques, that are important to their studies and in high-demand by Canadian healthcare and other industries. In addition to TMU, this new equipment will expand robotics research capacity of hospitals and industrial partners.