Abstract:

Flexible and soft robots have the potential for significant impact across a range of medical applications. In addition to their benefits in minimally invasive surgical applications, their inherent compliance also make them well-suited for other tasks requiring close human-robot interaction and collaboration. In this talk, I will present several new robot designs across a range of medical applications – from surgery to rehabilitation. First, I will discuss our work on two different continuum robots – soft, growing robots that achieve locomotion by material extending from their tip, and concentric tube robots. I will also discuss new approaches for providing haptic feedback during teleoperation of these robots using soft and flexible interfaces. Finally, I will present our work on the design of soft wearable robots fo...