LCSR Seminar: Hongliang Ren

Description

Hongliang Ren, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the National University of Singapore, will give a talk entitled "Collaborative Robotics with Continuum and Compliance" as a seminar for the Johns Hopkins Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics.

Abstract:

Representing a major paradigm shift from open surgery, minimally invasive surgery assisted by robots and sensing is emerging by accessing the surgical targets via either keyholes or natural orifices. It is challenging to get delicate and safe manipulations due to the constraints imposed by the mode of robotic access, confined workspace, complicated surgical environments and the limited available technologies, particularly in terms of endoluminal curvilinear targeting and guidance. Addressing the aforementioned challenges and aiming at human-centered flexible robots, this talk will share our recent biorobotic researches in continuum mechanisms, compliance modulations, delicate sensing, and collaborative human-robot interactions, mostly in the context of medical applications. The compliant continuum robotics with embodied intelligence allows us to bypass critical important intracranial or intracorporeal structures, to conform its shape to be compliant with curvy passages, and have direct access to the target sites under proper planning and navigation, thus significantly reducing invasiveness and trauma of surgery.