Medical Technologies and Challenges of Robot Assisted Minimally Invasive Intervention and Diagnostics

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances and ongoing challenges in medical robotics for minimally invasive procedures, focusing on modeling, control, sensing, and actuation technologies in confined anatomical spaces.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of current robotic technologies and highlights open problems in natural orifice, single port, capsule, and microrobotics for medical applications.

Findings

Advances in magnetic actuation and sensing improve capsule robotics.

Modeling and control techniques are evolving for complex surgical robots.

Open challenges remain in localization and sensing accuracy in confined spaces.

Abstract

Emerging paradigms furthering the reach of medical technology deeper into human anatomy present unique modeling, control and sensing problems. This paper discusses a brief history of medical robotics leading to the current trend of minimally invasive intervention and diagnostics in confined spaces. Robotics for natural orifice and single port access surgery, capsule and magnetically actuated robotics and microrobotics are discussed with the aim of elucidating the state of the art. Works on modeling, sensing and control of mechanical architectures of robots for natural orifice and single port access surgery are discussed, followed by a presentation of works on magnetic actuation, sensing and localization for capsule robotics and microrobotics. Finally challenges and open problems in each one of these areas are presented.