PURPOSE To evaluate the efficiency, accuracy, and safety of robotic percutaneous access to the kidney (PAKY) for percutaneous nephrolithotomy in comparison with conventional manual techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS We compared the intraoperative access variables (number of access attempts, time to successful access, estimated blood loss, complications) of 23 patients who underwent robotic PAK...

BACKGROUND Beating-heart image-guided intracardiac interventions have been evolving rapidly. To extend the domain of catheter-based and transcardiac interventions into reconstructive surgery, a new robotic tool delivery platform and a tissue approximation device have been developed. Initial results using these tools to perform patent foramen ovale closure are described. METHODS AND RESULTS A ...

Two mechatronics prototypes, useful for robotic neurotreatments and new clinical trainings, are here presented. P.I.G.R.O. (pneumatic interactive gait rehabilitation orthosis) is an active exoskeletonwith an electropneumatic control. It imposesmovements on lower limbs in order to produce in the patient’s brain proper motor cortex activation. Bra.Di.P.O. (brain discovery pneumatic orthosis) is a...

Binary robotic devices with large degrees of freedom have been proposed by a number of researchers. However, experimental implementations of these concepts have been built with conventional components. These physical systems are heavy, complex and far from being practical devices. In this paper, a lightweight, compliant mechanism driven by optimized magnet-coil actuators is proposed and develop...

The brain-machine interface (BMI) enables us to control machines and to communicate with others, not with the use of input devices, but through the direct use of brain signals. This paper describes the integrative approach we used to develop a BMI system with brain surface electrodes for real-time robotic arm control in severely disabled people, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. T...

We present a robotic embodiment experiment based on real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI). In this study, fMRI is used as an input device to identify a subject’s intentions and convert them into actions performed by a humanoid robot. The process, based on motor imagery, has allowed four subjects located in Israel to control a HOAP3 humanoid robot in France, in a relatively n...

There exists a large disconnect between the natural fluid motion of unconstrained human walking and the unnatural, rigid motion of human walking with a robotic exoskeleton. This unnatural movement of walking in a robotic exoskeleton is largely due to poor controller design and can make the motion energetically inefficient for the user [1]. Our research group has been developing techniques to us...

Conventional display in robotic surgery such as flat displays or stereoscopic displays decreases obtainable information around target tissue. For supporting manipulation and performing safe surgery, this paper proposes a haptic navigation method, which enables surgeons to avoid collision with untouchable regions around target tissue by producing force feedback through a master manipulator. This...

This work deals with the design, the implementation and the experimental validation of a forcereflecting teleoperation architecture for robotic assisted endoluminal surgery. On that account, a meso-scale surgical robot was used as target device to be teleoperated. This mesorobot was developed during the ARAKNES (Array of Robots Augmenting the Kinematics of Endoluminal Surgery) FP7 project, in w...