COSER Summer School – Program and Speakers

COSER Summer School – Program and Speakers

program and speakers

2-5 May 2022 at Room Verde, Department of Computer Science, University of Verona – ITALY
Last editing: 6 April 2022 

Monday, May 2nd Tuesday, May 3rd Wed, May 4th Thur, May 5th
9.00 - 9:45ROBOTIC SURGERY
Talk Fiorini		NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING
Talk Ponzetto		CS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Talk Vernon		Q&A Legal with Flor
9.45 - 10.30ROBOTIC SURGERY
Talk De Momi		NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING
Talk Rospocher		CS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Talk Orlandini		GROUP WORKS
10.30 - 11.00coffee breakcoffee breakcoffee breakcoffee break
11.00 - 12.30Q&A ROBOTIC SURGERY with invited speakers

ICE BREAKING SESSIONS		Q&A NLP with invited speakers

GROUP WORKS		Q&A with invited speakers

SURGERY
Melfi (virtual but live)		GROUP WORKS
Student activities finalization
12.30 - 14.00lunch breaklunch breaklunch breaklunch break
14.00 - 14.45SURGERY
Antonelli (in person)		Q&A Robotic Surgery with Mathis UllrichETHICS
Talk Patuzzo		STUDENTS' FINAL ASSESSMENT
14.45 - 15.30Q&A Surgery with AntonelliGROUP WORKSQ&A Ethics with PatuzzoSTUDENTS' FINAL ASSESSMENT
15.30 - 16.00coffee breakcoffee breakcoffee breakcoffee break
16.00 - 17.30ROBOTIC SURGERY
Talk Mathis Ullrich

GROUP WORKS		GROUP WORKSLEGAL
Talk Flor (recorded)

GROUP WORKS		STUDENTS' FINAL ASSESSMENT

Enroll now

By 13 April fill up the registration form to express your interest to attend. Participants can join from anywhere. The number of participants is limited in accordance with the group activities. In person attendees will be advantaged.

Register here

Confirmed speakers per area 

ROBOTIC SURGERY

Paolo Fiorini

Altair Robotics Lab – University of Verona
Full profile

Talk title: Commonsense in robotic surgery, unexpected need

ROBOTIC SURGERY

Elena De Momi

NEAR Lab – Politecnico di Milano
Full profile

Talk title: Commonsense in surgical robotic design

ROBOTIC SURGERY

Franziska Mathis-Ullrich

Institute for Anthropomatics and Robotics at KIT Karlsruhe
Full profile

TALK TITLE: Context-sensitive robotics in minimally invasive surgery

ABSTRACT: Surgical robots have proven to provide safe and individual treatment to patients and allow for efficient use of health care personnel and resources. The next generation of cognitive surgical robots utilizes machine learning technologies to learn from and with human surgeons to provide context-sensitive support in the operation room. This talk introduces several cognitive robotic systems for minimally invasive surgical procedures being researched at the Health Robotics and Automation Lab at KIT, Germany. In particular, we will focus on the question how commonsense reasoning must be integrated into these learning systems to provide generalized care to patients with varying anatomies, to support surgeons with varying preferences, or to analyze individual instrument activity and tissues in different surgical domains.

SURGERY

Alessandro Antonelli

University of Verona Full profile

Talk title: The advances of robotics in urology: commonsense or evidences?

SURGERY

Franca Melfi

University Hospital of Pisa Full profile

Talk title: The impact of robotic surgery on healthcare and surgical training

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING

Marco Rospocher

University of Verona Full profile

Talk title: Knowledge representation and reasoning with ontologies

ABSTRACT: In this class we will introduce the notion of ontology and we will see how an ontology can be used to formally represent knowledge so that an agent (e.g., a robot) can use and reason on the information encoded in it. We will overview some concrete applications and examples of ontologies, also in the surgical domain, and we will learn how to inspect the content of an ontology using an ontology editor.

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING

Simone Paolo Ponzetto

University of Mannheim Full profile

Talk title: Natural language understanding and applications

ABSTRACT: In this class I will introduce a few advancements from the past decade on computational models that can be used to represent the meaning of words and sentences in context and methods to acquire such representations from textual evidence found in corpora. Moreover, we will look at how these encode dimensions of meaning that are useful for real-world applications (e.g., document search).

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

David Vernon

Institute for Artificial Intelligence, University of Bremen
Full profile

Talk title: Commonsense reasoning as an extended form of episodic future thinking: insights from the situation model framework

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Andrea Orlandini

National Research Council (CNR) Full profile

Talk title: Knowledge-based Autonomous Systems in Safety-critical Scenarios

ABSTRACT: The recent diffusion of autonomous systems (e.g., robots) in human environments entails the need of dealing with a wide range of operative and safety requirements. This lecture will provide an overview of plan-based control systems to realize safe and effective autonomous behavior for artificial agents. Particular attention will be provided to the integration of semantic technologies and formal methods to realize autonomous systems capable of exhibiting an augmented understanding of the environment and synthesizing robust plans in highly dynamic scenarios.

ETHICS AND LAWS

Sara Patuzzo

University of Verona Full profile

Talk title: Robotic surgery and artificial intelligence: bioethical issues

ABSTRACT: L’ingresso dell’intelligenza artificiale nella chirurgia ha dato vita a un settore tecnologicamente avanzato che include diversi saperi, quali in primis l’ingegneria robotica e la medicina. L’interdisciplinarietà che lo caratterizza non si esaurisce entro il campo scientifico, investendo anche il piano umanistico della riflessione, ivi comprese l’etica e la deontologia medica. Infatti, alcuni interrogativi morali si pongono alla nostra attenzione, alla ricerca di una consapevolezza e di un dibattito che li analizzi con rigore. Tra questi, a titolo di esempio, quale ruolo attribuire alla macchina considerata intelligente nella relazione con il medico e soprattutto con il paziente e, di conseguenza, la questione dell’informazione e del relativo consenso-dissenso all’intervento, oppure come valutare il rapporto tra l’efficienza del risultato atteso e l’assenza di emozione in una prassi medica dove il fattore umano può risultare non più l’unico e poi, forse, nemmeno il più decisivo. 

ETHICS AND LAWS

Roberto Flor

University of Verona Full profile

Talk title: Artificial intelligence, robotics, commonsense reasoning and legal responsibilities

Enroll now

By 13 April fill up the registration form to express your interest to attend. Participants can join from anywhere. The number of participants is limited in accordance with the group activities. In person attendees will be advantaged.

Register here

Commonsense Reasoning in Surgical Robotics

Commonsense Reasoning in Surgical Robotics

The first doctoral school dedicated to a frontier theme for autonomous robotics.
From 2 to 5 May 2022 in Verona and in hybrid format, registration by 13 April.

We are pleased to announce the Summer school in “Commonsense reasoning in surgical robotics”, which will be held from 2 to 5 May 2022 in hybrid format: the lessons will take place online and at the Department of computer science UNIVR.
This new proposal is the evolution of COSUR summer school on the control of surgical robots and aims to investigate even more specifically the world of autonomous surgical robotics in its most advanced developments.

The school will bring together national and international experts to discuss issues related to commonsense reasoning in autonomous robotics – that is, all those innate skills and concepts that are natural to a human being, but must be taught to a robot in order to act independently. A pioneering topic for the scientific community, which has recently started to be discussed discussed thanks to the progress achieved in the technical field.

The school is characterized by a strong interdisciplinary connotation and includes specialists in robotics, artificial intelligence, medicine, ethics and law. Given the complexity of the topic, we strongly believe that only an integrated approach will to foster a broad and articulated vision on a horizon that is still little known. The teaching will includes lectures but also collaborative workshops and group activities to stimulate interaction between the participants.

Understanding how to describe, represent and learn innate human abilities is an aspect of great importance in developing autonomous agents that are robust and reliable.

Prof. Paolo Fiorini

Director of the ALTAIR Robotics Laboratory

The school is open to Italian and foreign PhD students and researchers in the following disciplines: robotics, artificial intelligence, medicine, ethics, law and natural language processing.

Registration is open until April 13, which will be followed by a selection of the applications received. The participation fee is 50 Euros, except for affiliates of the Verona university, for which participation is free. Attendance in person is strongly recommended.

Program, teachers and methods of participation are available at this link.
Partners: ATLAS Project – AuTonomous intraLuminAl Surgery, ARS Project – Autonomous Robotic Surgery and UNIVR Computer Science Department.

Register now

Robotics Goes PRISMA – a seminar with Prof. Bruno Siciliano (UNINA)

Robotics Goes PRISMA – a seminar with Prof. Bruno Siciliano (UNINA)

Date: Friday 11 March 2022
Time: 16:00
Place: Aula Verde, Dip. Informatica
Speaker: Prof. Bruno Siciliano – PRISMA Lab
Department of Electrical Engineering & Information Technology – University of Naples Federico II

Contact Person: P. Fiorini

ABSTRACT

The PRISMA Lab www.prisma.unina.it has been engaged in robotics research at University of Naples Federico II for more than 30 years. This talk will survey our most remarkable achievements in seven research areas where robot manipulation and control challenges are found: grasping and manipulation, handling and manipulation, dynamic manipulation, aerial manipulation, interaction with deformable objects, human–robot interaction, and haptic shared control.

BIO

To present Bruno Siciliano, Professor of Robotics and Director of ICAROS Center at University of Naples Federico II, and Past President of IEEE Robotics & Automation Society, one cannot overlook what is his background: the city of Naples and the reckless passion for Napoli soccer team. It then happens that the background comes to the fore and becomes for the robotics expert at an international level a turning point. Like when, having earned his PhD degree, he decided to build his academic future in his city and for his city, declining a faculty position at a prestigious American university, (also) because of the football faith that has always accompanied him in the team’s highs (those were the times of Maradona) and lows. His book Robotics is among the most adopted texts in universities around the world, even though when he talks about his academic achievements there is the impressive Springer Handbook of Robotics, the reference manual for robotics at international level, edited with Professor Oussama Khatib, which he defines as “the most exciting professional experience of my life”. A work of coordination of over 200 renowned researchers, with the goal (fulfilled) of offering a unique tool to the scientific community of robotics and beyond. His research group at PRISMA Lab has had more than 20 projects funded by the European Union for a total of 18 million euros in the last 15 years, including an Advanced Grant from the RoDyMan, an acronym for “Robotic Dynamic Manipulation”, a robot capable of replicating the movements of a pizza maker. In terms of scientific research, it constituted the challenge of creating an automaton capable of manipulating deformable, elastic, non-solid objects, such as water and flour dough. “Keep the gradient” is the motto that Siciliano invented, meaning a constant search for new ideas and new solutions. A hymn to complexity to capture challenges and opportunities always in the name of the art of work & play, as stated in his passionate TEDx Talk.

 

More details are available at http://wpage.unina.it/sicilian/ and https://www.ipr.kit.edu/english/staff_3343.php

Cognitive robotics and embedded AI for minimally invasive surgery – a seminar with Prof Franziska Mathis-Ullrich (KIT)

Cognitive robotics and embedded AI for minimally invasive surgery – a seminar with Prof Franziska Mathis-Ullrich (KIT)

Date: Friday 11 March 2022
Time: 11:00
Place: Aula Verde, Dip. Informatica
Speaker: Prof Franziska Mathis-Ullrich -Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Contact Person: P. Fiorini

ABSTRACT

While human interaction remains key to a caring treatment, medical robotics holds the potential to improve surgical processes through enabling scaling of forces and actuation, providing safe and individual treatments to patients, and allowing for efficient use of health care personnel and resources. Machine learning algorithms and standardization of processes can increase the quality of medical diagnosis and treatments, particularly when analyzing large quantities of data. Technical and robotic systems can thus support the medical staff in all steps of a medical process.
This talk introduces several assistive robotic systems for minimally invasive surgical procedures being researched at the Health Robotics and Automation Lab at KIT, Germany. On one hand, we will discuss steerable flexible robotic tools for medical applications that require delicate tissue handling. On the other hand, cognitive robotic surgeons and augmented reality support in the operation room are presented for application in laparoscopy and neurosurgery.

Source: ClicKIT Magazine

BIO

Franziska Mathis-Ullrich is Assistant Professor for Medical Robotics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. Her primary research focus is on minimally invasive and cognition controlled robotic systems and embedded machine learning with emphasis on applications in surgery. She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering and robotics in 2009 and 2012 and obtained her Ph.D. in 2017 in Microrobotics from ETH Zurich, respectively. Since 2019, she has been an Assistant Professor with the Health Robotics and Automation Laboratory at KIT. Prof. Mathis-Ullrich is vice-president of the German Society for Computer- and Robot-assisted Surgery (CURAC) and has received the IEEE ICRA Best Paper Award in Medical Robotics (2014), the IEEE BioRob Best Student Paper Award (2016) and won twice with her team the first prize of the ICRA Microassembly Challenge (2014 & 2015). Furthermore, she made it onto the prestigious Forbes “30 under 30” list (2017).

IEEE T-MRB Call for Papers

IEEE T-MRB Call for Papers

IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics (IEEE-TMRB) Special Issue / Section on Sensors for Physical Interaction and Perception in Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery

Guest Editors: Prof. Paolo Fiorini, University of Verona, Italy, and Dr. Giovanni Gerardo Muscolo,  University of Verona, Italy 

Deadline for papers submission: 15  September 2022

This special issue/section aims at presenting contributions on sensors for monitoring and rendering physical interaction to increase perception in surgical robotics, such as, for example, force/torque, contact, proximity, virtual sensors and their corresponding feedback devices.

Robotic surgery is a research field in continuous evolution and many aspects are still to be optimised to develop more complex clinical operations. Ten years ago, artificial intelligence was not considered for surgical systems; Da Vinci was the only surgical robot available on the market; 3D printing was a promising technology potentially useful for robotic surgery; and microsurgery was developed to increase precision. Today, the European Commission has defined the ethical guidelines of artificial intelligence in all sectors of technology, including surgical robotics; many surgical robots are being developed or tested in the market and 3D printing is a viable tool for medicine. However, one big problem that still remains unsolved is the sensorization of surgical tools: designs still rely on classical configurations, fabrication is very challenging, and sterilization of electronics prevents embedding sensors in the instruments. Furthermore, data collected by sensors are fed back to the users by simple devices that can rarely support a good perception, thus sensors and feedback devices should be optimized for joint operation, which is not presently done.

This special issue/section will contribute to clarify the field, help defining the promising technologies and their applications, and list the progress in using interaction data to simplify surgery tasks. Interaction among sensors and new haptic devices for increasing perception in surgeons are others interesting aspects included in the topics of the special issue/section. 

Topics include, but not limited to:

  • Force/Torque Sensors for Surgical Robotic Instruments;
  • Force Feedback, Estimation and Measurement;
  • Optical Fibre Sensors;
  • Tactile and proximity Sensors;
  • Vision and Virtual Sensors;
  • Design of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) Load Cell for Surgery;
  • Strain Gauges and Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG);
  • Multi-Axis Force Platforms and Stewart Platform;
  • Suture Tensile and Tool-Tissue Interaction;
  • Smart Instruments and Tissue Palpation;
  • Flexure Hinge and Force Decoupling.
  • Modelling, Control and Design of Micro Force/Torque Sensors;
  • Machine Learning and AI for Sensory data Analysis and Validation;
  • Disposable Sensors and Sterilization;
  • Design of Haptic Devices with Force and touch rendering for Telesurgery;
  • Interaction Among Sensors for Perception in Robotic Surgery.

The journal also welcomes survey and commentary papers providing: critical, systematic review of research areas and trends within its scope; evidence-based studies on early clinical validation of robotic or bionic technologies, and contributions on ethical, social, economic, and organizational aspects concerning robotics and/or bionic solutions for medical and healthcare applications.
Submissions are OPEN!

read the call