STIFF-FLOP

The Foundation of Cardaic Surgery Dvelopment (FRK) has been active in creating virtual models representing the human abdomen as well as the STIFF-FLOP arm. Virtual Reality Technology is an interdisciplinary technology, integrating CAD/CAM technology, artificial intelligence, computer networking and sensor technology. It is widely used in the design and testing of mechanical models.

Read more: Virtual model of the STIFF-FLOP arm

Having taken the STIFF-FLOP integration platform and turned it into a CE/EMC certified product, Shadow has now got the RoNeX hardware in production. There has been significant interest from educators wanting to use it as a platform to teach robotics with ROS, as well as uptake from robot designers looking to use RoNeX to speed up their own hardware and systems development.

Shadow’s R&D team is very excited by the potential, and is using RoNeX actively in new development projects, and exploring new module types.

An inverse kinematics function of a manipulator is normally required for the control if its tip. It provides manipulator configurations that allow the manipulator tip to reach desired positions. The configuration, depending on the manipulator structure can be, for example, its joint angles, segment lengths or input pressures.

Read more: Physical-based Model Inverse Kinematics

In September 2014, the British Science Association held the British Science Festival in Birmingham, in partnership with the University of Birmingham and in association with Birmingham City Council and Birmingham City University and our headline sponsor Siemens. During this year’s Festival, STIFF-FLOP was demonstrated as an example for research at the forefront of scientific and technological advancement.

First schedule for the Block Review Meeting 2015 has been releases. Details and registration form can be found here:

Block Review Meeting 2015

Enjoy also our teaser for The 2015 Inoovative Surgical Robotics Forum.

Register for the forum

The STIFF-FLOP consortium collected updates on the current progress of the project in the latest Newsletter D6.2.3 which is now available on the website in the NEWSLETTER section.

“Octopus arms have a built-in mechanism that prevents the suckers from grabbing octopus skin,” says Guy Levy (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), the lead author of the work, which appears today in . Their article has received a huge interest from the media such as Nature , The Guardian , The Telegraph , Daily Mail , IBT , The Scientist , National Geographic , The Verge , International Science Times , Arutz Sheva .

Read more: Why octopus arms don’t stick together?

For decades, advances in training, medication, sensing and instrumentation have progressed surgical techniques. Nowadays robotics are being looked at as the next means to further increase surgical precision, improve efficiency and push boundaries of surgical skill.

Currently still US-dominated, the European Union through its 7^th Framework Program, is supporting research to catch up and overtake the lead in this strategic and highly dynamic domain.

Read more: European Surgical Robotics Demonstration Day