Personalised Stent Graft Manufacturing for Endovascular Intervention

Lead Research Organisation: Imperial College London
Department Name: Institute for Global Health

Abstract

Vascular disease is a major contributor to cardiovascular deaths in the Western world. The incidence of abdominal aortic aneurysms increases significantly with age - by over 300% for those at age 70 compared to those at age 50. With the demographic shift associated with the ageing population, there is a pressing need for early intervention and minimally invasive surgery. Endovascular therapy avoids major trauma associated with open operation, with clear advantages in terms of reduced morbidity and mortality, especially in patients unable to withstand traditional open surgery. It, however, has certain technical and anatomical constraints which are currently not addressed by the current manufacturing methods. Stent design and placement have a direct implication on the reintervention rate, which for endovascular repair is often higher than open repair. Side branches to the main artery require bespoke openings on the graft, which are expensive and time consuming to produce. The long delay in customised graft manufacturing can subject patients to the risk of aneurysm rupture and precludes treatment to patients with acute symptoms. Improved manufacturing of personalised stent-grafts is therefore an unmet clinical demand that requires innovative manufacturing solutions. This project aims to develop a novel robotic platform for personalised stent-graft manufacturing. It includes the development of a new stent graft sewing robot combined with a fully personalised aortic mould printed with the latest 3D printing technologies using patient-specific imaging data. It improves consistency, speed and quality of customised manufacturing of stent graft with complex geometries and represents an ideal example of the innovative use of robotics, additive manufacturing, and machine vision for small run, 'batch'-of-one personalised medical devices. The project is to be carried out by a multidisciplinary team with complementary research skills in robotics, sensing, imaging, and endovascular intervention, alongside two major industrial partners in medical devices and surgical robotics.

Planned Impact

The proposed work aims to improve the manufacturing of stent grafts through the use of robotics, imaging and vision. A summary of the impact produced by this proposed project is below, and a full description of the Pathways to Impact is in Annex II. The impact activity milestones include: 1) Staff training and development; 2) IP generation; 3) Public engagement activities; 4) Sustainability of the project team through different exploitation routes and leverage funding from other sources.

Knowledge and academic impact
Significant focuses of the project include knowledge transfer and clinical translation with measurable healthcare impact. The academic beneficiaries will be in the fields of medical device manufacturing, robotics, imaging and endovascular interventions. The pathways to impact will be through academic publications, and presenting at international conferences in the relevant fields with due consideration of IP implications. The knowledge gained from this project will be put to use by forming collaborations with technical and clinical research groups in these research fields.

Clinical impact
The proposed project will have significant clinical impact to society through the provision of better healthcare, particularly in endovascular intervention. The current method of personalised stent graft manufacturing is expensive and time consuming. The proposed work aims to make personalised stent graft manufacturing more efficient, scalable and cost-effective, and thus making the stent graft technology available to many more patients. The national AAA screening programme provides an ideal vehicle for clinical and patient engagement of the proposed project and we will also engage with national and international professional vascular surgery societies.

Commercial exploitation and economic benefit
The technologies developed in this project could have significant commercial impact, particularly in high value, small-run medical device manufacturing, as well as a wider application in other manufacturing sectors. In linking to academic dissemination, IPR will be reviewed at each milestone stage and any intellectual property arising will be protected and exploited via Imperial Innovations in full coordination with the Research Steering Group, which will provide IP management recommendations, as well as critical review and management and technical recommendations to the research team, and to establish effective dissemination routes to both academic and industrial communities. Our strong relationship with industrial partners (Medtronic and Hansen Medical) will ensure the IP generated will have strong industrial relevance and tangible exploitation routes.

People development
We will actively encourage new academic staff (Co-Is) and PDRAs to spearhead and take ownership of blue sky idea generation with direct clinical/industrial interaction, thus stimulating creative and adventurous approaches that underpin the project objectives. For staff development, we will work closely with the Learning and Development Centre at Imperial College London to offer a series of interlinked programmes to meet individual needs regarding research and management skills, covering research organisation, professional development and public engagement of cross-disciplinary research. The team will be encouraged to lead public dissemination activities and develop the necessary managerial, vocational and entrepreneurial skills for career progression.

Communication and engagement
The multidisciplinary team will ensure close collaboration between clinical and engineering researchers as well as continuous two-way communication between clinical and non-clinical partners. Annual project workshops and clinical seminars will also be organised. We aim to engage with patients and the public through conferences, science fairs and open days. A project website will be set up to disseminate the details of the project and its progress to the public.

Publications

10 25 50
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Bai W (2022) Task-Based LSTM Kinematic Modeling for a Tendon-Driven Flexible Surgical Robot in IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics

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Han J (2022) A systematic review of robotic surgery: From supervised paradigms to fully autonomous robotic approaches. in The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery : MRCAS

 
Description We have developed methods for dual-arm robotic control, introducing a framework by which multi-task conflicts can be handled. The method was demonstrated on two robots used to performed stent graft manufacturing. We have also developed a hand-held automatic suturing device that will be applicable to sewing as well. We have developed a vision guided multi-robot operative system for personalised stent grant manufacture. A patent application has been filed for the hand-held sewing device.
Exploitation Route The research findings will be of interest to others in the field of robotic manufacturing and surgical robotics, where multiple robot arms will interact together to perform a task. The suturing technology will also be of interest to surgeons for quicker stitching.

Some of the sewing technology may be of interest to the artistic communities and may assist with complex 3D stitching.
Sectors Aerospace

Defence and Marine

Creative Economy

Healthcare

Manufacturing

including Industrial Biotechology

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

Other

 
Description Hansen Medical 
Organisation Hansen Medical, Inc
Country United States 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Expertise on machine learning and skills assessment. Expertise on vascular interventions.
Collaborator Contribution Assistance with ex vivo experiments and robot time
Impact This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration with members from our team consisting of engineers and clinicians. No outputs yet.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Medtronic 
Organisation Medtronic
Country United States 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution New robotics expertise on stent graft manufacturing.
Collaborator Contribution Expertise on stent grafts and stent graft materials.
Impact No outputs yet.
Start Year 2015
 
Title A SEWING DEVICE 
Description The patent discloses a surgical apparatus for the intracorporal suturing procedure. The device is a suturing probe which can manipulate a semicircle double pointed needle to perform suturing. The suturing thread is attached to the middle of the needle. The device has two movable jaws which can alternatively hold one end of the needle. One of the jaws holds the needle and drives it to pierce through the tissue. When the needle tip comes out from the tissue, the needle enters the channel of the second jaw. The locking mechanism in the first jaw releases the needle and the other jaw will grasp and retrieve the needle. Then the thread is left inside the tissue and one stitch is finished. The procedure is repeated until the wound is completely closed. During the piercing process, the needle is rotated around its geometrical centre by the jaw; this feature can guarantee a minimal tearing force on the tissue, avoiding the damage caused by the lateral movement of needle tip. When the probe is inserted into a surgical port, its jaws are closed with needle locked to one jaw. Later, the jaws are open to perform stitching. This feature enables it to go through a relative small surgical port without damage to the port. The suturing probe only requires simple driving mechanism at proximal end, so an adaptor can be designed to connect the suturing tool and its driving unit, making the tool disposable. The suturing probe has two versions. They can be mounted on the tip of a long rigid shaft and flexible joints respectively. Although the two versions have similar needle driving design based on slider-crank mechanism, their needle locking mechanisms are different. For the rigid one, the needle locking and driving mechanism are actuated by using rigid linages and nitinol flat springs, which makes it work accurately and robustly. For the flexible one, the needle locking and driving mechanism is actuated by using a tendon driven mechanism, making it possible to adapt to a flexible joint structure. 
IP Reference GB1720496.7 
Protection Patent application published
Year Protection Granted
Licensed No
Impact The device is designed for rapidly applying stitches for sewing personalized stent graft. The device can also be used for automatic surgical suturing in minimally invasive surgery.
 
Title A joint 
Description A bendable portion, also called a flexible joint, which is arranged at the distal end of a flexible surgical device is disclosed. Its application includes flexible endoscope or other flexible operative instruments for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This design is a combination of rigid and compliant mechanisms. It has the advantages of accurately controllable, monolithically manufactured and easily assembled. A basic embodiment of the flexible joint section resembles a helical spring bended by pulling tendons routed through the channels passing axially of the spring. Since the helical spring represents an assembly of infinite number of flexural points, it is difficult to control reliably. To limit the number of DOF and increase axial stiffness, rolling contact joints are added at each pitch segment of the spring. Two antagonized tendons are routed 90o apart from the rolling contact joint in radically direction. Therefore, the flexible joint is constrained to only planar movement without unwanted axial compression. The aforementioned design could have many variations, e.g. the spring structure could either be single or double helix. Multiple flexible joint could be combined to achieve spatial bending and S-shape bending. 
IP Reference GB1812622.7 
Protection Patent application published
Year Protection Granted
Licensed No
Impact This invention could be used for developing flexible endoscope and other flexible surgical devices.
 
Title 3D shape instantiation for fenestrated stent graft 
Description It offers real-time 3D shape instantiation for fully-deployed, fully-compressed, and partially-deployed fenestrated stent graft. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2019 
Impact It is free for non-commercial usage and would push the development of 3D navigation in fenestrated endovascular aortic repair. 
 
Title 3D skeleton instantiation for abdominal aortic aneurysm 
Description It extracts intra-operatively the 3D skeleton of abdominal aortic aneurysm, which is useful for 3D robotic path planning during fenestrated endovascular aortic repair. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2019 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact It is free for non-commercial usage and would push forward the 3D path planning for fenestrated endovascular aortic repair. 
 
Description Former Prime Minister Tony Blair Visit 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The former Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Imperial College and toured the Hamlyn Centre for Robotics, viewing demonstrations of surgical robots, 3D printed microrobotic tools and augmented reality technology for medical imaging.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/187036/former-pm-supports-lord-darzi-report/
 
Description Friends of Imperial Visit 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Supporters
Results and Impact The Hamlyn Centre participated in the programme of "Friends of Imperial Visit" as one of visit destinations. Our research teams demonstrated the latest research result to the "Friends of Imperial Visit" participants and answered their questions regarding the works.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.friendsofimperial.org.uk/Media/Documents/Current_Programme.pdf
 
Description Hamlyn Centre Christmas Showcase 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact The Hamlyn Christmas Showcase was an event for collaborators and affiliates of the Hamlyn Centre that showcased the latest research outputs of the Hamlyn Centre. The aim was to communicate our research findings and encourage deeper collaboration.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Hamlyn Centre Induction Day 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact The Hamlyn Centre Induction Day was an event for creating better connectivity within the Hamlyn team of over 80 researchers. With talks, networking activities and discussions, this event enabled MRes students, PhD students, researchers and support staff to engage and share ideas for development of Hamlyn initiatives.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Hamlyn Centre Official Twitter 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Hamlyn Centre Official Twitter account aims to reach out all types of audiences for demonstrating our research progress and result, promoting our events and sharing relevant information.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019
URL https://twitter.com/ICLHamlynRobots
 
Description Hamlyn Winter School on Surgical Imaging and Vision 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Hamlyn Winter School focuses on both the technical and clinical aspects of Surgical Imaging and Vision. Through invited lectures, hands-on demonstrations, workshops, and mini-projects, the purpose of our winter school is to help researchers familiarise with the cutting edge research of this rapidly expanding field covering key areas of:

Fundamentals and current state-of-the-art in surgical imaging;
Vision algorithms for tracking, 3D scene reconstruction and surgical navigation;
Intra-operative registration and retargeting;
Multi-modal image fusion and real-time augmented reality systems based on inverse realism;
Robot assisted large area microscopic imaging and mosaicing;
Dynamic active constraints with real-time vision;
Vision enabled surgical robot design and miniaturisation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018,2019
URL https://www.imperial.ac.uk/hamlyn-centre/news-and-events/hamlyn-winter-school-on-surgical-imaging-an...
 
Description Hamlyn Winter School on Surgical Imaging and Vision 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The Winter School focuses on both technical and clinical aspects of Surgical Imaging and Vision, with invited lectures, hands-on demonstrations, workshops, and mini-projects.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/winterschool/
 
Description International Robotics Showcase 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A showcase of robotics for academia, industry and the public
The International Robotics Showcase will be part of the International Business Festival this year, and this will be held on Thursday 21st June 2018 at the Exhibition Centre Liverpool, Kings Dock, Liverpool Waterfront, L3 4FP.The full-day programme includes exclusive talks by world-renowned experts in science and technology, panel discussions, exhibitions, robot demonstrations and an award ceremony for competition winners demonstrating cutting-edge robotics innovation.

Exciting demonstrations of cutting-edge robotics technology;

Lively discussion and debate, covering ethical, legal and economic impacts of Robotics and AI;

The release of several new White Papers, covering the current research landscape in:
Urban Automation & Transport
AgriTech
The day also offers academics, industry, government organisations and the public, the opportunity to enjoy the fascinating and diverse exhibits by our sponsors, as well as provide a lively forum for discussion and discovery of some of the latest technological developments and research challenges in Robotics and Autonomous Systems.

The event will take place within the 2018 International Business Festival and a 9 day pass is included withi your registration.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/uk-ras/robotics-week/showcase
 
Description Invited Talk- Prof Itaru Kitahara: 3D-CG Virtual Surgical Operation in University of Tsukuba 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Our senior research fellow Dr Matina Giannarou invited Prof. Itaru Kitahara to share the experience about "3D-CG Virtual Surgical Operation in University of Tsukuba" with our researchers in the Hamlyn Centre. Prof. Itaru Kitahara is leading the Virtual Surgery research project at the University of Tsukuba, Japan and his research focuses on Computer Vision and Mixed Reality. During the talk, he not only introduced "3D CG Virtual Surgery", which aims to realise a navigation system of surgical operation using Computer Vision and AR/VR techniques, but also presented the collaboration between their research team and the medical doctors in our university regarding 3D CG Virtual Surgery.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://twitter.com/ICLHamlynRobots/status/1102943972790542336
 
Description Invited Talk- Prof Jackrit Suthakorn: the past, present and future of the BART LAB 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Prof Jackrit Suthakorn, the BART LAB executive director and the department chair of Department of Biomedical Engineering at Mahidol University, visited the Hamlyn Centre on Monday 25th January 2019. He gave a talk regarding the development of the BART LAB as well as their current research areas and progress in robotics for extreme environment as well as rehabilitation to the Hamlyn Centre researchers and members.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Minister of State for Immigration Caroline Nokes MP and Cancer Research UK Visit 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Caroline Nokes MP, Minister of State for Immigration, visited Imperial in October 2018 and took a tour of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery. She was joined by representatives of Cancer Research UK and our college president Alice Gast. During the visit, Caroline Nokes was shown some of our latest robot technology in medicine, developments which have enabled healthcare professionals to conduct smarter operations with higher precision.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/188691/immigration-minister-sees-benefits-internationalism-imperial/
 
Description Professor Daniel Elson: Lighting Up The Operating Theatre 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Professor Daniel Elson, our Hamlyn Centre Director of Studies, talked through a career that has mirrored the typical innovation translation pathway - from a PhD in laser physics, and time spent in the Faculty of Engineering developing imaging tools for key hole surgery, a move to the Division of Surgery saw him work directly with surgeons to begin translating those technologies into image guidance tools. He discussed progress made developing diagnostic methods and technologies, and the value of adopting a clinical, rather than purely technological driven, approach to innovation and problem solving, working with surgeons to identify challenges today and tomorrow.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQz7HufVaQ&feature=youtu.be
 
Description Robotic Endovascular Interventions Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A dedicated workshop on Robotic Endovascular Interventions, in conjunction with the 5th Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, was held in London on Saturday, 30 June 2012. This forum brought together researchers in academia and industry to exchange ideas on the current state-of-the-art and on the future trends in endovascular procedures and technologies.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012,2013,2014,2015
URL http://ubimon.doc.ic.ac.uk/Hamlyn2012/m1587.html
 
Description Robotic Sewing and Suturing: What Can We Learn From Each Other? 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact There are many similarities in the automation of needle and thread handling in the manufacturing and clinical fields and by bringing together these highly related specialisms, we asked: what can we learn from each other? The workshop aim was to stimulate discussion and encourage cross-fertilisation of new ideas in this niche yet increasing important area in surgery and innovative manufacturing. There were approximately 35 attendees from around the world, from industry, academia, and healthcare. Of particular interest was the involvement of a 3D embroidery artist, with knowledge shared between the various audience types and changes in views reported.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/hsmr/robotic-sewing-and-suturing-what-can-we-learn-each-other
 
Description School Robot Challenge 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The challenge will be run jointly by any interested UK-RAS partner universities, and is aimed at teams of schoolchildren of ages up to 16 (year 11). It will be published in the UK-RAS Robotics Week 2018 brochure and on the website, and will be distributed via each participating university's local schools' network.

The challenge will consist of 2 separate activities: the first involves schools working independently to develop and then submit a design(s) for a robot system to help older people. The deadline for submissions for this activity is 18/05/2018.

The best entries will then be chosen, with one winning team selected by each participating university (the proximity of school to university may or may not influence the decision), which will then invite that team to a special one-day event on 26/06/2018 (that is, the Tuesday of UK Robotics Week). After a tour of the robot labs, the teams will be set another similar care-themed challenge using whatever basic, programmable robotics equipment is to hand (e.g., Lego Mindstorms - there is no requirement for the same equipment to be used at each university). This activity will last from 10.30am until 3.30pm with a working lunch provided, and if possible live streaming of video from the other participating sites (also shown on the UK-RAS website). The goal of each team will be to produce a smartphone video of no longer than 1 minute's duration that describes the problem, the concept and design of their suggested solution, and - hopefully - shows their solution in action.

The videos will be uploaded to YouTube or similar. A panel of judges - one from each participating university - will view each of the videos, and then confer to select an overall winning team. (Some of) the winning team will then be invited to the UK Robotics Week Showcase event on Thursday 21st June, where they will receive a prize (budget permitting) on behalf of their school.

The suggested text publicising the challenge is below. (Note that it is not intended to be as explicit as the above text to allow for some flexibility in the format to take into account the number and quality of submissions, budget available, participating universities, etc., and all dates are subject to confirmation.)


The UK-RAS Health and Social Care Challenge 2018

We invite schools to submit their designs for a robotic system that addresses the challenge of how to help older people stay healthy and live independent lives. Submissions should be the work of teams of up to 8 children aged 16 or under. Entries can be in any format, should be no longer than 1000 words (or equivalent) in length, and each school may submit an unlimited number of entries.

The closing date for submissions is Friday 18th May. The judging panel will then select the best entries, with submissions being judged according to their usefulness, practicality and creativity. The winning teams will be invited to a special one-day event on Tuesday 26th June at their nearest UK-RAS University, during which they will visit our robotics facilities to learn more about our research, and then get to develop and test their own robots.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/uk-ras/events/school-robot-challenge
 
Description School Robot Challenge at Imperial Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact An interactive activity was provided at the Imperial Festival 2017, based on the School Robot Challenge organised by the Hamlyn Centre and the UK-RAS Network. This activity encouraged schoolchildren to be inspired by robotics and nature and create their own digital robotic insect. The children drew a robotic insect on paper and were then shown how to turn it into a 3D computer model.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/uk-ras/robotics-week-2018
 
Description Speciality Cluster Hub Workshop on Medical Devices for Endovascular Interventions 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Organised the "Speciality Cluster Hub Workshop on Medical Devices for Endovascular Interventions" - Imperial College London, 21 April 2016.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Surgical Robot Challenge 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The aim of this challenge is to exploit the unique expertise of the consortium in medical robotics to develop low-cost robot-assisted surgical and diagnostic devices that can benefit the NHS as well as be used as solutions for global health.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/hsmr/events/surgical-robot-challenge-2017
 
Description Surrey University: To host the 18th TAROS 2017 as an official event of UK Robotics Week 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact TAROS is a platform for RAS researchers from worldwide, and welcomes paper submissions on a wide range of topics related to the principles and practice of robotics, including but not limited to:

Advanced applications of autonomous robots (industrial and research)
Advanced medical robotics; Robots for surgery; Assistive robotics; Intelligent prostheses
Applications development, hardware issues, devices and techniques, advanced sensors and actuators
Autonomous assembly robotics; Modular reconfigurable robots; Evolutionary robotics
Autonomous vehicles; driverless cars
Bio-mimetic and bio-inspired robotics; Bio-hybrid robotic systems; Humanoid robotics
Cognitive robotics; Developmental robotics
Ethical and societal issues in robotics; Robots in education, the arts and entertainment; Personal robotics
Field robotics, Space and planetary robotics
Human-robot interaction and interfaces
Learning and adaptation
Long-term interaction and operation
Modelling and analysis of robot models
Navigation, localization, map building and path planning; Analysis of robot-environment interaction
Robot autonomy including energy self-sufficiency; Robot control architectures; Robot vision, sensing and perception
Robot communication and language
Safety, verification and validation for robotic applications
Service robotics
Soft robotics
Swarm robotics; Collective robots
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.surrey.ac.uk/taros2017
 
Description The Hamlyn Centre Christmas Showcase 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Supporters
Results and Impact The Hamlyn Christmas Showcase is an event that showcased the latest research outputs form our research teams at the Hamlyn Centre. Every year we invite our collaborators and affiliates to participate this event in order to demonstrate our research findings and to discuss potential further collaboration.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017,2018,2019
URL https://twitter.com/ICLHamlynRobots/status/1073577685488754688
 
Description The Hamlyn Centre Official Website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Hamlyn Centre Official website aims to engage with all types of audiences for introducing our centre purpose and structure as well as our research areas and environment. On the website, we also constantly update job opportunities, event information and News from our research teams as well as the Imperial College.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019
URL https://www.imperial.ac.uk/hamlyn-centre/
 
Description The Hamlyn Symposium 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics (HSMR) provides an annual forum for surgeons and engineers from across the globe, to network and explore the latest developments in medical robotics. The Symposium has been successfully conducted for the past 11 years and has become a leading international conference on medical robotics, current clinical practice and emerging technologies in robotic surgery. Every year researchers, clinicians and engineers are invited to submit papers on a range of topics covering clinical specialities in Urology, Cardiac Surgery, Neuro Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Gynaecology, ENT, Orthopaedic and Paediatric Surgery. The Hamlyn Symposium is composed of a series of workshops on various clinical and technical topics and the main conference with the participants from leading medical, science and technology institutions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019
URL https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/
 
Description UK Robotics Week 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Acting autonomously or in close collaboration with humans, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) have a broad range of new and established applications. As the underlying technologies are further developed and translated from laboratory settings to real-world applications, RAS is playing an increasingly important role in the UK's economy and it's future growth.

The UK-RAS Network was established with the mission to provide academic leadership, expand collaboration with industry and integrate and coordinate activities at the EPSRC funded RAS capital facilities, Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) and partner universities across the UK.

We are delighted with last year's inaugural UK Robotics Week and proud to build on its success with this year's event. The UK Robotics Week provides a spotlight on the UK's technology leadership in RAS, and engages the nation's schools, colleges and universities in developing the digital skills needed to drive the UK's future economy.

The UK Robotics Week also acts as a forum for discussion of technological, commercial, legal, ethical and social aspects of robotics. The wide range of events covered, from symposia, workshops, conferences, festivals, competitions and hackathons, contribute to a thriving programme across the country. We endeavour to provide promotion to other robotics related events in the calendar and aim to ensure robotics remains high on the government's agenda as one of the transformative technologies of the present and future.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/roboticsweek2017/welcome
 
Description Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: Deep Learning for Medical Robotics 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact More than 90 researchers attend the workshop with a discussion of the application of deep learning in medical robotics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: Emerging Learning Techniques for Robotics 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Learning is a rapidly advancing field in recent years, in terms of both methodological development and practical applications. In medical robotics, computational models are able to learn with supervision or without supervision to facilitate intricate medical interventions, i.e. cancer detection and autonomous suturing. It can implicitly capture task principles and repeat it with comparable accuracy, robustness and time-efficiency.

Whilst some of the technical challenges are still being addressed, including generative modelling, large-scale parameter optimisation, and handling heterogeneous multi-modal data with varying temporal dependencies and missing samples, its use for medical robotics has reached marked success. Examples include the use of deep learning for tissue characterisation and the use of reinforcement learning for catheter manipulation. Other applications include surgical vision, navigation, learning, adaptation and task automation.

The purpose of this workshop is to report the latest advances in the field of learning for medical robotics, addressing both original algorithmic development and new applications of deep learning.

Topics for this special issue include, but are not limited to:

Learning for surgical vision and navigation;
Learning for tissue characterisation, optical biopsy and margin assessment;
Learning for learning, adaptation and surgical task completion.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/workshops/emerging-learning-techniques-for-robotics/
 
Description Workshop on Human-Robot Interactions Applied to Health 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uobgz4tjq7c1ue/HSMR17_programme-FINAL.pdf?dl=0
 
Description Workshop on Surgical Robotics: First in Human - What does it take? 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/hsmr/surgical-robotics-first-human-what-does-it-take