Research
Decommissioning Compliant Robots
Aim
Decommissioning nuclear facilities is an important challenge of this century. Together with the University of Tokyo, we aim to develop a dedicated manipulator that could stand radiations and adapt to uncertain environments to contribute to the decommissioning tasks at the Sellafield nuclear site in the UK and the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan. The compliance, given by a Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVT) based Variable Impedance Actuator (VIA), will allow the manipulator to interact safely with its environment without adding sensors that would be sensible to radiation.
Partners & fundings
Robotic Medical Simulators
Aim
Robotic medical simulators are tools that aim to provide medical practitioners with a safe and realistic experience to practice and learn medical gestures. Compliance is once again essential in this application to both simulate the behaviour of soft tissues and safely interact with the practitioner. In the CSR lab, We work on hardware solutions and control strategies that allow measuring and monitoring the practitioners' gestures and delivering an accurate haptic rendering.
Highlights
An abdominal palpation simulator
An epidural needle insertion simulator
Childbirth delivery simulator for forceps training
Partners & fundings
Selected publications
L. He, N. Herzig, S. De Lusignan, L. Scimeca, P. Maiolino, F. Iida and T. Nanayakkara, An Abdominal Phantom With Tunable Stiffness Nodules and Force Sensing Capability for Palpation Training. IEEE Transaction on Robotics, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 1051-1064. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2020.304371
N. Herzig, R. Moreau, T. Redarce, F. Abry, and X. Brun, Nonlinear position and stiffness Backstepping controller for a two Degrees of Freedom pneumatic robot. Control Engineering Practice, vol.73, pp. 26-39. DOI: doi.org/10.10/j.conengprac.2017.12.007
Liang He, Nicolas Herzig, Simon de Lusignan, and Thrishantha Nanayakkara, Granular Jamming Based Controllable Organ Design for Abdominal Palpation. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference of the IEEE, 2018, pp. 2154-2157. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2018.8512709
N. Herzig, R. Moreau, A. Lelevé, and M. T. Pham, Stiffness Control of Pneumatic Actuators to Simulate Human Behavior on Medical Haptic Simulators. Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, International Conference of the IEEE, p1591-1597. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/AIM.2016.7576997
P.-J. Alès, N. Herzig A. Lelevé, R. Moreau, and C. Bauer, 3D Haptic Rendering of Tissues for Epidural Needle Insertion using an Electro-Pneumatic 7 Degrees of Freedom Device. Intelligent Robot and Systems, 2016. Annual International Conference of the IEEE/RSJ, 2016, pp. 5175-5180. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2016.7759760
N. Herzig, R. Moreau, T. Redarce, F. Abry, and X. Brun, Nonlinear Position and Closed Loop Stiffness Control for a Pneumatic Actuated Haptic Interface: the BirthSIM. Intelligent Robot and Systems, 2015. Annual International Conference of the IEEE/RSJ, 2015, p1612-1618. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2015.7353583
N. Herzig, R. Moreau, and T. Redarce, A New Design for the BirthSIM Simulator to improve realism. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2014. Annual International Conference of the IEEE, 2014, p2065-2068. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944022
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Bio-inspired Compliance for Robots
Aim
Many biological systems exploit compliance to solve surviving challenges in nature. At the CSR lab, we like to take inspiration from these biological solutions to understand why they are efficient. We then work on mechatronics designs that will benefit from this inspiration to tackle robotics challenges.
Highlights
A robotic hoof for slip reduction
A robotic whisker for texture comparison
A mountain lion-inspired pneumatic leg for jumping
Partners
Selected publications
S.-A. Abad, N. Herzig, S.M.H. Sadati, and T. Nanayakkara, The significance of the Compliance of the Joints on the Dynamic Slip Resistance of a Bio-inspired Hoof. IEEE Transaction on Robotics, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 1450-1463. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2019.2930864
H. Wegiriya, N. Herzig, S.-A. Abad, S.M.Hadi Sadati, and T. Nanayakkara, Stiffness Controllable Multimodal Whisker Sensor Follicle. IEEE Sensors, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 2320-2328. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2019.2951755
Soft and Compliant Medical devices
Aim
Medical devices such as surgical tools, endoscopes, or ultrasonic imagery tools interact with the soft tissues of patients. To prevent any injuries while using these devices, it is required for them to be compliant. This compliance can be used not only to safely adapt to the patients' morphology but also to enhance the information obtained from sensors. At the CSR lab, we work to develop the medical tools that will help medical practitioners in their tasks while safely interacting with the patient's body.
Highlights
A hybrid soft rigid actuator for medical applications
Bioinspired adaptable multiplanar mechano-vibrotactile haptic system
A robotic palpation probe
Partners & fundings
Selected publications
N. Herzig, L. He, P. Maiolino, S.-A. Abad and T. Nanayakkara, Conditioned Haptic Perception for 3D localization of Nodules in Soft Tissue Palpation with a Variable Stiffness Probe. Plos One, vol. 15, no. 8, pp. 1-31. DOI: doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237379
E. Perez-Guagnelli, J. Jones, A. H. Tokel, N. Herzig, B. Jones, S. Miyashita, and D. D.Damian, Characterization, Simulation and Control of a Soft Helical Pneumatic Implantable Robot for Tissue Regeneration. IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 94-103. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2020.2970308
N. Herzig, P. Maiolino, F. Iida and T. Nanayakkara, A Variable Stiffness Robotic Probe for Soft Tissue Palpation. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 1168-1175. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2018.2793961
N. Herzig, J. Jones, E. Perez-Guagnelli, and Dana D. Damian, Model and Validation of a Highly Extensible and Tough Actuator based on a Ballooning Membrane. International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2021, pp. 11961-11967. DOI: doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561091