Moving forward by clustering surgical robotic activities in EU

Robotic surgery is one of the most appealing fields of modern robotics. With over 2 decades history, more than 2.000 systems installed worldwide and over 200.000 interventions conducted per annum; the field of robotic surgery is considered well-established. Despite these impressive figures and increasing popularity in research labs all over the world, the list of technological advances that made it into the operating room (OR) during this last decade is fairly limited. Long expected techniques such as 3D reconstruction, motion compensation, virtual guidance, haptic feedback, under study in many labs all over the planet did not make their appearance into the market yet.

This workshop seeks to give a clear view on the status and recent trends of abovementioned assistive surgical robotic technologies and aims to propose concrete measures to achieve a critical mass in research and innovation in this field. In fact, regardless of its popularity, the share of European technology used in clinical practice remains disproportionally small, with limited signs of improvement on the horizon. The workshop will continue the discussion started at ERF in Lyon and at ICRA in Karlsruhe and will attempt to identify the steps necessary to stimulate cooperation among the projects in robotic surgery and the best approach to take advantage of the supposed attention of Horizon2020 to innovation.

More info at www.cascade-fp7.eu/cras2013