STREAM: Scaled TeleRobotics for EnhAnced Microsurgery.

The overall goal of STREAM is to create a breaktohrough in microsurgery by supplying innovative robotic tools to enhance the surgeon's manipulation accuracy. During the project a novel framework for the design of bilateral teleoperation controllers will be elaborated. The framework supports the synthesis of controllers that guarantee robust interaction with objects of arbitrary complexity and impedance (from soft tissue over veins up to bones) and importantly enable online adaptation of velocity and force scale factors: "variable-scale teleoperation". In such a way enhancement of the surgeon's skill and improved efficiency can be achieved, as the surgeon can specify at each moment the desired force and velocity range of the interacting slave robot, allowing fast and swift motions, but also precise manipulation of the tissue. To achieve the intended accuracy and efficiency advancements with respect to existing hardware solutions are essential. During the project novel robotic systems will be developed, inclusing a haptic master featuring impulse generation capability and an innovative lightweight backdrivable MIS-robot. Collaboration with the university hospital will be organized to test and validate the novel teleoperation system and the concept of variable-scale teleoperation. Industrial partners will be sought to commercialise systems and/or system components. The novel slave-robot will be patented and the patentability of other elements will be investigated.

Keywords:Telerobotics, Microsurgery