Soft Robotics in Medicine

Robots are seeing increasing integration into the medical field, but they are often limited by their size, lack of flexibility, and other intrinsic impediments. However, an area of recent interest, soft robotics, has the potential to overcome these limitations, as soft robots are inherently flexible and compliant. These traits allow them to effectively navigate tight spaces and complex geometry, such as the interior of the human body. Additionally, the lack of distinction between structural members and actuators displayed by soft robots allows for a great deal of customization in their structure and function, with their so-termed soft actuators having a wide variety in composition and mode of activation. As such, it is conceivable that these soft robots, given enough time and research, will be able to solve many issues facing the medical field, such as targeted or sustained drug release, and improve many areas of medicine, through applications such as minimally invasive surgeryundergraduat

Application of robotics in medicine

Ovim Završnim radom biti će istaknuta, prije svega, snaga uma koja stvara misao o održivosti ljudskih unutarnjih granica te mogućnost razvoja sustava potrebnog istoj. Obuhvate li se aspekti svih društvenih znanosti, posebno psihološke humane naravi, dolazi se do razvoja i suvremenosti koji prisustvuju unutar čovjeka. Primjena robotike u medicini obuhvaća aspekte održivosti razvoja stoga je vrlo važna tematika koja sjedinjuje budućnost čovječanstva i povijest ispisanu beskonačnim stranicama, ljudskom naprednošću, protivna zloupotrebi pojmova robotike te njenih zakona koji će biti navedeni u uvodnom dijelu. Povijest robotike, koja dovodi do razvitka medicinske primjene te medicina kao znanost, opisane statističkim primjerima uz slikovitu predodžbu ranijih, sadašnjih te mogućih postignuća u tom polju, biti će prikazani u radu te posebno istaknuta primjena u području neurokirurgije gdje je veliki doprinos stigao sa domaćeg područja uvođenjem ''RONNA“ robotskog stereotaktičkog sustava za neuronavigaciju. Eksperimentalnim dijelom prikazane će biti mogućnosti potencijalne primjene nanotehnologije u medicini, načine kojim bi se nanoroboti mogli kretati kroz čovjekovo tijelo noseći odgovarajući lijek i alate potrebne za izvršenje svoje dužnosti - liječenje ljudskog organizma.With this final paper, there will be noted the power of the mind which creates a thought about sustainability of human inner limits and the possibility of needed system development. While comprehending the aspects of all social sciences, especially of the psychological human nature, there is ability to reach the development and modernity within human. Application of robotics in medicine includes the aspects of development sustainability and it is a very important topic, which unites the future of humanity and the endless pages of history written by human progressiveness, contrary to the abuse of robotics application and its laws which will be specified in the introductory part. Robotics history, which causes the development of medical application, and medicine as a science, described with statistical examples and a picturesque image of the earlier, the present and the possible acquirements in that field, will be shown in this final paper as well as the peculiarly featured application in the domain of neurosurgery, where the great contribution came from domestic territory with the introduction of ‘’RONNA“ robotic stereotactic neuronavigation system. With the experimental part, there will be shown the possibilities of the potential applications of nanotechnology in medicine, the ways that nanorobots could potentially move through human body while carrying a compatible cure and the tools necessary for the implementation of their duty - the treatment of the human body

Easterner, Vol. 62, No. 12, January 12, 2011

This issue of the Easterner contains articles about the Football Championship Series title game against the Delaware Blue Hens, a campus research magazine called DiscoverE, the renovation of the Wren Pierson Community Center, problems with Blackboard, Career Services, a Lego competition to promote robotics in medicine, upcoming Women\u27s Studies Center seminars, Spokane rock band Fallen Regiment, the men\u27s and women\u27s basketball season, and the hockey season.https://dc.ewu.edu/student_newspapers/1711/thumbnail.jp

Age-appropriate information technology on the advance: Putting paid to olden times

Ageing society opens up enormous economic potential. Whereas for a long time social interpretation homed in on the doomsday scenarios of demographic change, it is the economic potential that is now emerging with increasing clarity. Information and communication technologies stand a good chance of benefiting from this trend. Older people are not intrinsically technology refuseniks, as evidenced by the growing number of silver agers using the internet. Successful products will be far removed from disenfranchisement and stigmatisation. The challenge to product developers and marketing strategists is to create age-appropriate offers that older people do not perceive as encroaching on their autonomy or pointing up their physical infirmities. Particularly promising are offers enabling barrier-free use without seeming like segregational solutions for specific age groups. User friendliness, value systems and the legal framework are currently stymieing yet wider success. Technical fascination aside, the business potential hinges directly on regulations concerning data protection, teletreatment and cost reimbursement, on user friendliness and society’s attitude towards the application of robotics in medicine and healthcare. The tasks involved are enormous. Product developers, marketing strategists, physicians, nurses and carers, politicians and older people in need of help themselves must be prepared to take the new routes. Assistance systems, e-Health and health games benefit from demographic change. The range of offers is highly diversified. They extend from ‘intelligent’ tablet dispensers, emergency bio sensor technology in motor vehicles and motion sensor technology through tele-monitoring and online consultations to brain jogging and exercise games.demographics, technology,ICT, e-Health, games, AAL, assistance systems

Level-Set Based Artery-Vein Separation in Blood Pool Agent CE-MR Angiograms

Blood pool agents (BPAs) for contrast-enhanced (CE) magnetic-resonance angiography (MRA) allow prolonged imaging times for higher contrast and resolution. Imaging is performed during the steady state when the contrast agent is distributed through the complete vascular system. However, simultaneous venous and arterial enhancement in this steady state hampers interpretation. In order to improve visualization of the arteries and veins from steady-state BPA data, a semiautomated method for artery-vein separation is presented. In this method, the central arterial axis and central venous axis are used as initializations for two surfaces that simultaneously evolve in order to capture the arterial and venous parts of the vasculature using the level-set framework. Since arteries and veins can be in close proximity of each other, leakage from the evolving arterial (venous) surface into the venous (arterial) part of the vasculature is inevitable. In these situations, voxels are labeled arterial or venous based on the arrival time of the respective surface. The evolution is steered by external forces related to feature images derived from the image data and by internal forces related to the geometry of the level sets. In this paper, the robustness and accuracy of three external forces (based on image intensity, image gradient, and vessel-enhancement filtering) and combinations of them are investigated and tested on seven patient datasets. To this end, results with the level-set-based segmentation are compared to the reference-standard manually obtained segmentations. Best results are achieved by applying a combination of intensity- and gradient-based forces and a smoothness constraint based on the curvature of the surface. By applying this combination to the seven datasets, it is shown that, with minimal user interaction, artery-vein separation for improved arterial and venous visualization in BPA CE-MRA can be achieved