STIFF-FLOP Project - Newsletter giugno 2012
Data 15/06/2012
The STIFF-FLOP (STIFFness controllable Flexible & Learnable manipulator for surgical OPerations) project started at the beginning of the year 2012 after successful contract negotiations with the European Commission. The Commission is providing € 7.35 Mio funding over 4 years.
STIFF-FLOP focuses on Challenge 2 - Cognitive systems and robotics.
STIFF-FLOP will address a number of scientific and technological challenges. In minimally invasive surgery, tools go through narrow openings and manipulate soft organs that can move, deform, or change stiffness. There are limitations on modern laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgical systems due to restricted access through Trocar ports, lack of haptic feedback, and difficulties with rigid robot tools operating inside a confined space filled with organs. Also, many control algorithms suffer from stability problems in the presence of unexpected conditions. Yet biological “manipulators”, like the octopus arm and the elephant trunk, can manipulate objects while controlling the stiffness of selected body parts and being inherently compliant when interacting with objects.
The project aims at overcoming shortcomings of existing robotic systems for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) by creating a soft robotic arm that can squeeze through a standard 12mm diameter Trocar-port, reconfigure itself and stiffen by hydrostatic actuation to perform compliant force control tasks while facing unexpected situations. STIFF-FLOP will apply a holistic approach addressing the complete robot system and studying the following research questions: design and fabrication of a soft manipulation and grasping device, distributed sensing, biologically inspired actuation and control architectures, learning and developing cognitive abilities through interaction with a human instructor and manipulation of soft objects in complex and uncertain environments.
Per maggiori informazioni è scaricabile il file pdf clliccando qui
Sito: http://www.chirurgiaunito.it/allegati/STIFF-FLOP_g
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