The fields of soft robotics, tactile sensing and haptics have witnessed significant advancements in recent years, offering promising avenues for enhancing healthcare outcomes, particularly in medical diagnosis, prosthetics, neurorobotics, surgery and physiotherapy. These areas of healthcare include specific methods which could continue to be improved such as: navigating complex anatomical structures with flexible instruments, enhancing feedback to surgeons and doctors during diagnosis and surgical procedures, and developing more accurate training experiences and user interfaces for medical devices. Using soft and smart materials, robotic mechanisms and sensors can become compliant and deformable, mimicking natural organisms' flexibility and adaptability. These characteristics can advance tactile sensors and haptic systems to enable robots to perceive and interact with their environment through touch in a safer, more integrated and seamless manner, while also elevating human-robot interaction to a near-natural and intuitive experience.
The potential to revolutionize healthcare is great, via offering innovative solutions that improve patient outcomes, enhance healthcare professionals’ skills, and provide personalized and adaptive care. Recent developments such as variable stiffness mechanisms and compliant soft grippers for manipulation or safer and more flexible surgical procedures as well as sensor tuning techniques have the potential to enhance the capabilities of these technologies.
The goal of this Research Topic is to explore the challenges and opportunities of each of these areas, either as standalone technologies or combined in integrated systems, for addressing healthcare needs. It will highlight the state-of-the-art research, methodologies and innovations, emphasizing the advancements made in soft tactile sensors, sensory skins, soft haptic arrays and devices, bio-robotics and intelligent systems, human tissue-robot compliant interaction, as well as the role of artificial intelligence in the above areas.
Contributors to this Research Topic are encouraged to explore various themes which include, but are not limited to:
• Tactile sensing technologies for improved perception and interaction in healthcare scenarios
• Novel soft robotic designs and mechanisms for medical diagnosis and intervention
• Development of smart soft materials with tailored properties for sensors in medical applications
• Haptic feedback for surgical and medical interventions
• Sensors and feedback devices to improve tissue manipulation accuracy and enable autonomy or semi-autonomy in surgery
• Sensing flexible instruments for surgical and medical use
• Haptics for flexible instruments and steering needles
• Haptic feedback for enhanced prosthesis control
• Soft or haptic exoskeletons
• Soft robotic prosthetic limbs for amputees
• Tactile sensing and associated algorithms in prosthetic hands to enable amputees to perceive object properties, enhancing their grasp and manipulation capabilities
• Large area tactile sensors or sensorized artificial skins
• Soft sensorized/actuated medical trainers or organ phantoms
• Flexible and stretchable tactile sensors that can conform to complex shapes, allowing for precise and distributed sensing
• Integration of soft, tactile and haptic technologies in surgical training platforms to provide trainees with realistic and immersive experiences
• Artificial intelligence for soft robotic sensing and control
• Benchmarking and validation of soft tactile sensors and haptic interfaces
The fields of soft robotics, tactile sensing and haptics have witnessed significant advancements in recent years, offering promising avenues for enhancing healthcare outcomes, particularly in medical diagnosis, prosthetics, neurorobotics, surgery and physiotherapy. These areas of healthcare include specific methods which could continue to be improved such as: navigating complex anatomical structures with flexible instruments, enhancing feedback to surgeons and doctors during diagnosis and surgical procedures, and developing more accurate training experiences and user interfaces for medical devices. Using soft and smart materials, robotic mechanisms and sensors can become compliant and deformable, mimicking natural organisms' flexibility and adaptability. These characteristics can advance tactile sensors and haptic systems to enable robots to perceive and interact with their environment through touch in a safer, more integrated and seamless manner, while also elevating human-robot interaction to a near-natural and intuitive experience.
The potential to revolutionize healthcare is great, via offering innovative solutions that improve patient outcomes, enhance healthcare professionals’ skills, and provide personalized and adaptive care. Recent developments such as variable stiffness mechanisms and compliant soft grippers for manipulation or safer and more flexible surgical procedures as well as sensor tuning techniques have the potential to enhance the capabilities of these technologies.
The goal of this Research Topic is to explore the challenges and opportunities of each of these areas, either as standalone technologies or combined in integrated systems, for addressing healthcare needs. It will highlight the state-of-the-art research, methodologies and innovations, emphasizing the advancements made in soft tactile sensors, sensory skins, soft haptic arrays and devices, bio-robotics and intelligent systems, human tissue-robot compliant interaction, as well as the role of artificial intelligence in the above areas.
Contributors to this Research Topic are encouraged to explore various themes which include, but are not limited to:
• Tactile sensing technologies for improved perception and interaction in healthcare scenarios
• Novel soft robotic designs and mechanisms for medical diagnosis and intervention
• Development of smart soft materials with tailored properties for sensors in medical applications
• Haptic feedback for surgical and medical interventions
• Sensors and feedback devices to improve tissue manipulation accuracy and enable autonomy or semi-autonomy in surgery
• Sensing flexible instruments for surgical and medical use
• Haptics for flexible instruments and steering needles
• Haptic feedback for enhanced prosthesis control
• Soft or haptic exoskeletons
• Soft robotic prosthetic limbs for amputees
• Tactile sensing and associated algorithms in prosthetic hands to enable amputees to perceive object properties, enhancing their grasp and manipulation capabilities
• Large area tactile sensors or sensorized artificial skins
• Soft sensorized/actuated medical trainers or organ phantoms
• Flexible and stretchable tactile sensors that can conform to complex shapes, allowing for precise and distributed sensing
• Integration of soft, tactile and haptic technologies in surgical training platforms to provide trainees with realistic and immersive experiences
• Artificial intelligence for soft robotic sensing and control
• Benchmarking and validation of soft tactile sensors and haptic interfaces