Medical Robotics

Medical Robotics, i.e. the use of a robot to help the clinician during diagnostic or therapeutic actions, started about 25 years ago. Currently, only a few robots have entered the hospital. The reason is certainly complex and multifold, but three main factors emerge quite clearly :

• Firstly, the design of medical and surgical robots has to be improved to propose lightweight, compact and also low cost robotic devices.
• Secondly, a large amount of data is available to the surgeon with the increasing number of imaging modalities. Robotic systems should help by efficiently taking into account these multimodal data, for instance by providing safe guidance.
• Thirdly, clinician-robot interaction can still be largely improved.

The Medical Robotics sub-network will provide unique equipments to allow French teams to work on :

• The development of novel robotic devices,
• The development of realtime imaging, planning and robotic guidance, 
• The development of advanced interaction modes.

More than 70 researchers will be involved, in four different universities. Thanks to the network of
clinical partners of each team, a wide range of clinical applications will be studied, with emphasis on
endoluminal and single port surgery, interventional radiology and urology.
This network of platforms project strengthens translational research between the robotic partners and clinicians, but also allows for the development of industrial collaborations with small French companies.

Contact

Jocelyne Troccaz - jocelyne.troccaz@imag.fr