Résumé
As robot applications in humane nvironments increase, we see many interesting application in medicine. Thesei nclude robotic technologies used in robot-doctor interfaces for minimally invasive surgery and novel roboticdevices that can navigatei nsideh umanbodies.This chapter presents 3 interestingarticles representing the various facets of medical robotics.Papers in other chapters, however,alsodescribemedicalapplications of robotics. The first article by Zemetiand co-workers presents the designand analysis of a Minimally InvasiveSurgery robot.The trocar is designed withforcemeasurement capability, where the force sensor is placed outside the patient – " to reducecost and sterilizibility requirements ". This paper presents the results of the feasibility experiments. In the next article,D ario and colleagues take medical robotics a step further into the futureby reportingo n the concept and the preliminary modelingo fl egged micro robot locomoting in a tubular, slippery and compliant environment.The intendedapplication is for the microrobots ton avigatei nside the gastrointestinal tract for diagnosis and therapy.The microcapsules ared esigned tobei ngestible and then tomake its way to the gastrointestinal tract.The new contributionbeing studied herei s the micro robot's capability of effectivel ocomotion while inside the humanbody. The thirdarticle by Casals, et al .p resents amultimodalapproach toh uman-machine interface,a pplied t om edical robotics.This carries a similar idea to the first article in Chapter XIIIb y Iba et al , under the heading of Haptics and Augmented Reality.The ideais top rovide a rangeo fm ediaof communication between the surgeonand the robots, thus creating aquasi-hands-free control of the equipments.This would allow the surgeon tobetter control the equipments in the operating room without losing too muchf ocus on the taskat hand. The mode of interactionbeing studiedi s gesture recognition, witho ther modes available such as: tactile, speech,pedals,etc. Abstract. Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) challenges the surgeon's skills due to his separation from the operation area which can be reached with long instruments only. Therefore, the surgeon loses access to the manipulation forces inside the patient. This reduces his dexterity when performing the operation. A new compact and lightweight robot for MIS is presented which allows for the measurement of manipulation forces. The main advantage of this concept is that no miniaturized force sensor has to be integrated into surgical instruments and inserted into the patient. Rather, a standard sensor is attached to a modified trocar outside the patient, which allows for the measurement of manipulation forces. This approach reduces costs and sterilizability demands. Results of first force control experiments are presented to show the feasibility of the concepts.