ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research

ARTORG Seminars 2023

2023/05/10 | Events | Robotics

ARTORG Seminar "AI in Medical Robotics"

Fourth ARTORG Seminar organized by the Computational Bioengineering group with Prof. Dr. Georg Rauter, founder and head of the Bio-Inspired RObots for MEDicine Laboratory (BIROMED-Lab). He holds a structural professorship for Surgical Robotics as an Associate Professor.

When: Wednesday 10 May 2023, 12.00-13.00h
Where: Murtenstrasse 21 (UPD), room 412

(zvg.)

Georg Rauter studied mechanical engineering at TU-Graz and mathematical and mechanical modeling at MATMECA, Bordeaux. In 2014, he received his PhD in robotics from ETH Zurich. From 2014 to 2016 he was a postdoc in rehabilitation robotics at the ETH Zurich, the University of Southern California, and the University of Zurich. In 2016, he commercialized the gait rehabilitation robot the FLOAT in collaboration with the company Lutz Medical Engineering and the Spinal Cord Injury Center at the Balgrist, Zurich.

In 2016, he became Assistant Prof. for Medical Robotics and Mechatronics at the DBE, University of Basel and founded the Bio-Inspired RObots for MEDicine Laboratory (BIROMED-Lab). Since 2022, Georg Rauter continues his work with his BIROMED-Lab in Basel with a structural professorship for Surgical Robotics as an Associate Professor. He is IEEE member since 2011 and chair for IFToMM Switzerland since 2019.

Abstract:

Robots become more and more important in fields where it’s too difficult, dangerous, or simply to exhausting for humans to work. In the medical field, physiotherapy has become such a field that profits from robots: Therapists are relieved by robots that take over the burden of supporting patients in gait and arm therapy during repetitive task training. However, until now, robots are limited to simple functionalities or preprogrammed interaction models. In this talk, I will provide examples on the interventions that require adaptation during tasks to the patients’ capabilities in order to mimic human-human interaction or enable task-dependent support thanks to AI or machine learning algorithms.
In surgery, robots can equally offer major advantages that will augment the performance of current surgical procedures. I will provide examples not only of AI that enhances functionalities of surgical robots, but rather indicate the importance of structural intelligence before implementing artificial intelligence, e.g. to increase accuracy, dexterity, and improve device safety.