The MURAB project has the ambition to revolutionise the way cancer screening and muscle diseases are researched for patients and has the potential to save lives by early detection and treatment.
The project intends to create a new paradigm in which, the precision of great medical imaging modalities like MRI and Ultrasound are combined with the precision of robotics in order to target the right place in the body. This will be achieved by identifying a target using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and then use a robot with an ultrasound (US) probe to match the images and navigate to the right location.
This will be done thanks to a new innovative technique, which will be developed in the project and called Tissue Active Slam (TAS) which will use different techniques and modalities, like elastography, in order to cope with the deformation of the tissues. Such a procedure has the potential to drastically improve the clinical workflow and save lives by ensuring an exact targeting of (small) lesions, which are visible under MRI and not under US. Technologies developed within MURAB also have the potential to improve other clinical procedures. Clinically, two applications will be targeted and validated in the project: breast cancer diagnostics (MUW and ZGT) and muscle disease diagnostics (UMCN). Considering the potential for the market, industrial partners are involved with expertise in the delivery of safe robotics components and applications (KUKA), as well as with great knowledge and ambition in pushing innovation to the medical market (SIEMENS).

Prof. dr.Ir Stefano Stramiglioli
MURAB Project leader

Computer and Robot Assisted Surgery (CRAS) is an area receiving broad attention worldwide, because of its strong potential to achieve new levels of healthcare. In Europe, the robotics and the cognitive science communities have been independently pursuing research in this field, making significant, but fragmented contributions. Furthermore, strong manufacturers of surgical instruments are present in Europe.

The goal of EuRoSurge is to facilitate the development of new products and their integration into surgical robots endowed with cognitive capabilities, thus establishing the new field of Cognitive Robotic Surgery.

I-SUR Project develops general methods for cognitive surgical robots capable of combining sensing, dexterity and cognitive capabilities to carry out autonomously simple surgical actions, such as puncturing, cutting and suturing.

This proposal addresses the development of technologies for patient safety in robotic surgery. We define patient safety metrics for surgical procedures and then develop methods that abide by safety requirements, formulated in terms of our metrics. We aim at demonstrating that a properly controlled robotic surgery carried out in accordance to our safety criteria can improve the level of patient safety currently achievable by traditional surgery.