In this section
Soft and flexible robotic systems for affordable healthcare.
Our research investigates fundamental aspects of control of soft and flexible robots for surgery. These include harnessing the intrinsic compliance of soft robots, rejecting disturbances that characterise the surgical environment, and complying with stringent safety requirements. Our ambition is to provide affordable robotic solutions for a range of surgical applications, including endoscopy, percutaneous intervention, and multi-handed surgery.
Robotics for healthcare is one of the fastest growing segments in the global robotics market. However, conventional surgical robots are unaffordable in low-resource settings. Harnessing the potential of soft and flexible robots can contribute to making surgery safter, more accurate, and more accessible in low-middle income countries. These are pressing needs due to the aging population, and to the growing workforce crisis in the healthcare market.
Our work aims to improve accuracy, reduce the risk of injury, and reduce discomfort in percutaneous interventions such as biopsy, in diagnostic and interventional endoscopy, and in multi-handed surgery.
Dr Enrico Franco
Lecturer
@article{Franco:2018:10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2018.09.001,
author = {Franco, E and Rodriguez, y Baena F and Astolfi, A},
doi = {10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2018.09.001},
journal = {Mechanism and Machine Theory},
pages = {539--551},
title = {Robust balancing control of flexible inverted-pendulum systems},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2018.09.001},
volume = {130},
year = {2018}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - This work studies the balancing control problem for flexible inverted-pendulum systems and investigates the relationship between system parameters and robustness to disturbances. To this end, a new energy-shaping controller with adaptive disturbance-compensation for a class of underactuated mechanical systems is presented. Additionally, a method for the identification of key system parameters that affect the robustness of the closed-loop system is outlined. The proposed approach is applied to the flexible pendulum-on-cart system and a simulation study is conducted to demonstrate its effectiveness. Finally, the control problem for a classical pendulum-on-cart system with elastic joint is discussed to highlight the similarities with its flexible-link counterpart.
AU - Franco,E
AU - Rodriguez,y Baena F
AU - Astolfi,A
DO - 10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2018.09.001
EP - 551
PY - 2018///
SN - 0094-114X
SP - 539
TI - Robust balancing control of flexible inverted-pendulum systems
T2 - Mechanism and Machine Theory
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2018.09.001
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/64104
VL - 130
ER -
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