CIS research at TUM

The Technische Universität München (TUM) is widely known for the high quality research they have been conducting in the field of CIS for many years.
A great example is the da-Vinci replacement MIS system developed for research purposes at TUM incorporating two KUKA and a Stäubli robot (see on the side). TUM constructed a fully operational system with the use of inexpensive standard components (including actuators, sensors, software), with open API (Knoll, ICRA 2009). As the control parameters and sensory information is accessible at any time, it is possible to implement semi-autonomous algorithms and perform experiments on human-machine skill transfer. Another setup—the EndoPAR—was built at the German Heart Center in Munich with three ceiling-mounted Mitsubishi manipulators.

They have several engineering and clinical groups, a really impressive project list:

• Bone Removal by Laser Ablation
• Involvment in the MIROSURGE development
• Micro Robot for Precision Instrument Manipulation
• Mastoid Control
• Soft Tissue Navigation System for Open Liver Surgery
• Realistic Soft Tissue Liver Phantom development
• Robot-assisted Milling in Neuro Surgical Applications
• Graphics card based 3D algebraic reconstruction of x-ray projection images
• Navigation and Instrument Control for Craniofacial Surgery
• Computer Aided ENT Surgery
• Computer Aided Dental Surgery
• Shared control in MIS
• Automated knot tying.