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Flexible robots hold great promise for enhancing minimally invasive surgery (MIS) by providing superior dexterity, precise control, and safe tissue interaction. Yet, translating these advantages into endoscopic interventions within open…
Endovascular technique has many advantages but relies strongly on operator skills and experience. Robotically steerable catheters have been developed but few are clinically available. We describe here the development of an active and…
Soft robots achieve functionality through tight coupling among geometry, material composition, and actuation. As a result, effective design optimization requires these three aspects to be considered jointly rather than in isolation. This…
The purpose of this research is to design, fabricate and test a tendon driven a continuum soft robot with three modular segments, each of which has a tunable stiffness enabled by layer jamming technology. Compared with previous studies, the…
Movement disorders impact muscle strength and mobility, and despite therapeutic efforts, many people with movement disorders have challenges functioning independently. Soft wearable robots, or exosuits, offer a promising solution for…
Combining the unmatched soft-tissue imaging capabilities of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with high precision robotics has the potential to improve the accuracy, precision, and safety of a wide range of image-guided medical procedures.…
Many soft-body organisms found in nature flourish underwater. Similarly, soft robots are potentially well-suited for underwater environments partly because the problematic effects of gravity, friction, and harmonic oscillations are less…
The diffusion of minimally invasive, endovascular interventions motivates the development of visualization methods for complex vascular networks. We propose a planar representation of blood vessel trees which preserves the properties that…
The independent control of multiple magnetic microrobots under a shared global signal presents critical challenges in biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery and microsurgeries. Most existing systems only allow all agents to…
Robotic arms built from stiffness-adjustable, continuously bending segments serially connected with revolute joints have the ability to change their mechanical architecture and workspace, thus allowing high flexibility and adaptation to…
Medical steerable needles can follow 3D curvilinear trajectories inside body tissue, enabling them to move around critical anatomical structures and precisely reach clinically significant targets in a minimally invasive way. Automating…
Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) is a common vascular disease with blood clots inside deep veins, which may block blood flow or even cause a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. A typical exam for DVT using ultrasound (US) imaging is by…
The increasing demand for healthcare workers, driven by aging populations and labor shortages, presents a significant challenge for hospitals. Humanoid robots have the potential to alleviate these pressures by leveraging their human-like…
Beyond providing accurate movements, achieving smooth motion trajectories is a long-standing goal of robotics control theory for arms aiming to replicate natural human movements. Drawing inspiration from biological agents, whose reaching…
Surgical robotic systems equipped with microscale, high-dexterity manipulators have shown promising results in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). One barrier to the widespread adoption of such systems is the prohibitive cost of research and…
Objects moving in fluids experience patterns of stress on their surfaces determined by their motion and the geometry of nearby boundaries. Fish and underwater robots can use these patterns for navigation. This paper extends this…
Bristle-bots are legged robots that can be easily made out of a toothbrush head and a small vibrating engine. Despite their simple appearance, the mechanism enabling them to propel themselves by exploiting friction with the substrate is far…
High-speed locomotion of animals gives them tremendous advantages in exploring, hunting, and escaping from predators in varying environments. Enlightened by the fast-running gait of mammals like cheetahs and wolves, we designed and…
This letter reports the design, construction, and experimental validation of a novel hand-held robot for in-office laser surgery of the vocal folds. In-office endoscopic laser surgery is an emerging trend in Laryngology: It promises to…
Machines that mimic humans have inspired scientists for centuries. Bio-inspired soft robotic hands are a good example of such an endeavor, featuring intrinsic material compliance and continuous motion to deal with uncertainty and adapt to…