This review examines the dichotomy between automatic and autonomous behaviors in
surgical robots, maps the possible levels of autonomy of these robots, and describes the …

We explore whether surgical manipulation tasks can be learned on the da Vinci robot via
imitation learning. However, the da Vinci system presents unique challenges which hinder …

Tissue manipulation is a frequently used fundamental subtask of any surgical procedures,
and in some cases it may require the involvement of a surgeon's assistant. The complex …

Over the last two decades, several deployments of robots for in-house assistance of older
adults have been trialled. However, these solutions are mostly prototypes and remain …

Regrasping a suture needle is an important yet time-consuming process in suturing. To
bring efficiency into regrasping, prior work either designs a task-specific mechanism or …

This paper presents the performance analysis of the system for real-time reconstruction of
the shape of the rigid medical needle used for minimally invasive surgeries. The system is …

Suturing is required in almost all surgeries but it is challenging to perform with surgical
robots due to limited vision and/or haptic feedback. To tackle this problem, we present an …

To realize a higher-level autonomy of surgical knot tying in minimally invasive surgery (MIS),
automated suture grasping, which bridges the suture stitching and looping procedures, is an …

Background Robotic technology is an important tool in surgical innovation, with robots
increasingly being used in the clinical setting. Robots can be used to enhance accuracy …

Automation of surgical subtasks using cable-driven robotic surgical assistants (RSAs) such
as Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) is challenging due to imprecision in …