Mechatronic assistance for surgical applications

Abstract

Medical Robotics is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on developing electromechanical devices for diagnosis and therapy. The long-term goal of this application area is to enable new medical techniques by providing new capabilities to the physician or by providing assistance during surgical procedures. The field has tremendous potential for improving the precision and capabilities of physicians when performing surgical procedures, and thus it is believed that the field will continue to grow. On the other hand – and unlike the area of factory robotics, which grew rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s – Medical Robotics has not yet gained widespread acceptance. There are still many technological challenges and research topics – including both the development of system components and the development of systems as a whole. The paper aims to give a short overview on the state-of-the-art of Medical Robotics in selected application areas, to highlight some open problems e.g., system architecture, user interfaces and safety issues, and finally to show some examples for medical robotic developments from Austria.