Augmented reality (AR) for surgical robotic and autonomous systems: State of the art, challenges, and solutions

Despite the substantial progress achieved in the development and integration of augmented reality (AR) in surgical robotic and autonomous systems (RAS), the center of focus in most devices remains on improving end-effector dexterity and precision, as well as improved access to minimally invasive surgeries. This paper aims to provide a systematic review of different types of state-of-the-art surgical robotic platforms while identifying areas for technological improvement. We associate specific control features, such as haptic feedback, sensory stimuli, and human-robot collaboration, with AR technology to perform complex surgical interventions for increased user perception of the augmented world. Current researchers in the field have, for long, faced innumerable issues with low accuracy in tool placement around complex trajectories, pose estimation, and difficulty in depth perception during two-dimensional medical imaging. A number of robots described in this review, such as Novarad and SpineAssist, are analyzed in terms of their hardware features, computer vision systems (such as deep learning algorithms), and the clinical relevance of the literature. We attempt to outline the shortcomings in current optimization algorithms for surgical robots (such as YOLO and LTSM) whilst providing mitigating solutions to internal tool-to-organ collision detection and image reconstruction. The accuracy of results in robot end-effector collisions and reduced occlusion remain promising within the scope of our research, validating the propositions made for the surgical clearance of ever-expanding AR technology in the future

Learning cognitive maps: Finding useful structure in an uncertain world

In this chapter we will describe the central mechanisms that influence how people learn about large-scale space. We will focus particularly on how these mechanisms enable people to effectively cope with both the uncertainty inherent in a constantly changing world and also with the high information content of natural environments. The major lessons are that humans get by with a less is more approach to building structure, and that they are able to quickly adapt to environmental changes thanks to a range of general purpose mechanisms. By looking at abstract principles, instead of concrete implementation details, it is shown that the study of human learning can provide valuable lessons for robotics. Finally, these issues are discussed in the context of an implementation on a mobile robot. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Evaluation of Fused Synthetic and Enhanced Vision Display Concepts for Low-Visibility Approach and Landing

NASA is developing revolutionary crew-vehicle interface technologies that strive to proactively overcome aircraft safety barriers that would otherwise constrain the full realization of the next generation air transportation system. A piloted simulation experiment was conducted to evaluate the complementary use of Synthetic and Enhanced Vision technologies. Specific focus was placed on new techniques for integration and/or fusion of Enhanced and Synthetic Vision and its impact within a two-crew flight deck during low-visibility approach and landing operations. Overall, the experimental data showed that significant improvements in situation awareness, without concomitant increases in workload and display clutter, could be provided by the integration and/or fusion of synthetic and enhanced vision technologies for the pilot-flying and the pilot-not-flying. Improvements in lateral path control performance were realized when the Head-Up Display concepts included a tunnel, independent of the imagery (enhanced vision or fusion of enhanced and synthetic vision) presented with it. During non-normal operations, the ability of the crew to handle substantial navigational errors and runway incursions were neither improved nor adversely impacted by the display concepts. The addition of Enhanced Vision may not, of itself, provide an improvement in runway incursion detection without being specifically tailored for this application

Augmented Reality (AR) for Surgical Robotic and Autonomous Systems: State of the Art, Challenges, and Solutions

Despite the substantial progress achieved in the development and integration of augmented reality (AR) in surgical robotic and autonomous systems (RAS), the center of focus in most devices remains on improving end-effector dexterity and precision, as well as improved access to minimally invasive surgeries. This paper aims to provide a systematic review of different types of state-of-the-art surgical robotic platforms while identifying areas for technological improvement. We associate specific control features, such as haptic feedback, sensory stimuli, and human–robot collaboration, with AR technology to perform complex surgical interventions for increased user perception of the augmented world. Current researchers in the field have, for long, faced innumerable issues with low accuracy in tool placement around complex trajectories, pose estimation, and difficulty in depth perception during two-dimensional medical imaging. A number of robots described in this review, such as Novarad and SpineAssist, are analyzed in terms of their hardware features, computer vision systems (such as deep learning algorithms), and the clinical relevance of the literature. We attempt to outline the shortcomings in current optimization algorithms for surgical robots (such as YOLO and LTSM) whilst providing mitigating solutions to internal tool-to-organ collision detection and image reconstruction. The accuracy of results in robot end-effector collisions and reduced occlusion remain promising within the scope of our research, validating the propositions made for the surgical clearance of ever-expanding AR technology in the future

Hybrid approaches for mobile robot navigation

The work described in this thesis contributes to the efficient solution of mobile robot navigation problems. A series of new evolutionary approaches is presented. Two novel evolutionary planners have been developed that reduce the computational overhead in generating plans of mobile robot movements. In comparison with the best-performing evolutionary scheme reported in the literature, the first of the planners significantly reduces the plan calculation time in static environments. The second planner was able to generate avoidance strategies in response to unexpected events arising from the presence of moving obstacles. To overcome limitations in responsiveness and the unrealistic assumptions regarding a priori knowledge that are inherent in planner-based and a vigation systems, subsequent work concentrated on hybrid approaches. These included a reactive component to identify rapidly and autonomously environmental features that were represented by a small number of critical waypoints. Not only is memory usage dramatically reduced by such a simplified representation, but also the calculation time to determine new plans is significantly reduced. Further significant enhancements of this work were firstly, dynamic avoidance to limit the likelihood of potential collisions with moving obstacles and secondly, exploration to identify statistically the dynamic characteristics of the environment. Finally, by retaining more extensive environmental knowledge gained during previous navigation activities, the capability of the hybrid navigation system was enhanced to allow planning to be performed for any start point and goal point

Creating Through Mind and Emotions

The texts presented in Proportion Harmonies and Identities (PHI) Creating Through Mind and Emotions were compiled to establish a multidisciplinary platform for presenting, interacting, and disseminating research. This platform also aims to foster the awareness and discussion on Creating Through Mind and Emotions, focusing on different visions relevant to Architecture, Arts and Humanities, Design and Social Sciences, and its importance and benefits for the sense of identity, both individual and communal. The idea of Creating Through Mind and Emotions has been a powerful motor for development since the Western Early Modern Age. Its theoretical and practical foundations have become the working tools of scientists, philosophers, and artists, who seek strategies and policies to accelerate the development process in different contexts

Theater as Metaphor

The papers of the present volume investigate the potential of the metaphor of life as theater for literary, philosophical, juridical and epistemological discourses from the Middle Ages through modernity, and focusing on traditions as manifold as French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and Latin-American

Theater as Metaphor

The papers of the present volume investigate the potential of the metaphor of life as theater for literary, philosophical, juridical and epistemological discourses from the Middle Ages through modernity, and focusing on traditions as manifold as French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and Latin-American

The island imagination: an ecocritical study of ‘islandness’ in selected literature of the British and Irish archipelago

Taking its cue from Robert Pogue Harrison’s exploration of the cultural meanings of forests in Forests: The Shadow of Civilization (1992), this thesis investigates the role of islands and islandness in the cultural imagination, focusing on a selection of post-1960 island-themed literary texts from four selected islands/island groups around the British and Irish archipelago. The study draws upon recent developments in island studies, cultural geography, archipelagic perspectives, and the emergent field of material ecocriticism, and addresses the following questions: What can an ecocritical reading of literary island writing contribute to an understanding of islandness? And reciprocally, in what ways can an understanding of islandness take ecocritical debate forward? The methodology brings the close reading techniques of literary criticism to bear on the texts, augmented, where possible, by interviews with the authors. The findings have confirmed Pete Hay’s assertion, in the context of island studies, that islands are special, paradigmatic places: ‘topographies of meaning in which the qualities that construct place are dramatically distilled’ (2006: 31). The work of the island authors studied here reflects an apparent intensification of phenomenological experience, along with a disruption of established understandings of human being-in-the-world. The latter is exemplified in the thesis by discussion of concepts such as ‘concurrent’ island time and the ‘more-than-metaphorical’, and by its reframing of existing conceptualisations of dwelling. The physical qualities of islandness foster reflections on the intersections of the local and global, and offer visions of spatiotemporal scales that might assist in forging new means of apprehending the human place in planetary ecologies. Material ecocriticism has provided a theoretical basis for the consideration of islands as ‘naturecultures’ and ‘assemblages’, and while this approach has proved richly productive, it has also revealed islands to be resistant to encapsulation, in ways that have cast both the tropes of islandness and these theoretical positions themselves into critical relief. The results of the study have suggested amendments to ecocritical theory that include: a need to balance a sense of the vibrant choreographies of material becoming with an exploration of more personal, culturally-inflected chorographies; the addition of the concepts of ‘material affect’ and ‘material value’ to material ecocritical readings; and the augmentation of ecocritical posthumanism by an ongoing study of the implications of human technicity. The research responds to reservations expressed within the field of island studies about literary portrayals of islandness, and argues that the works studied here represent important interventions into island literature. Their authors can be seen as introducing new, hybrid forms, such as ‘pyscho-archipelagraphy’, to the articulation of islandness, and as offering critical reflections upon earlier island texts while working towards their own, original responses. In sum, the thesis carries out both the islanding of ecocriticism and the introduction of ecocritical approaches to the field of island studies, and makes a case throughout the discussion for the ongoing relevance and value of the study of literary evocations of islandness to both island studies and ecocriticism