Robotic Scrub Nurse for Otolaryngology-Integrating an Assistive Robot in the Operating Room

Over the past year we have studied the challenges that must be overcome before we can introduce assistive robots in an operating room. We consider top among the issues a human-robot interface and an instrument-robot interface. In order for an autonomous mechanism to serve up instruments it must have domain specific knowledge about the instrument nature. The robot must be able to track the state of each instrument under its management. To this end we examine technical requirements of an instrument server. The second area of interest, and the one more unpredictable, is the problem of interaction between a human and a machine. In the past we have looked at the human speech as a medium of communication with the robot. Going beyond that we also examine the interaction that occurs at the haptic level. Here we would like to know what precisely could be conveyed to the robot and frmo the robot just by a touch? In microscope is undesirable and touch becomes a valuable means of communication.