Fabio from Franka Emika, like many children, grew up reading comic books. Doctor Octopus, a villain from the Marvel comic universe, fascinated Fabio with his four massive robotic tentacles attached to his torso.

“When I think about the future, I envision having extra arms that people can easily control—imagine how amazing it would be to use them in an operating room! I also have another idea—having a robotic assistant or a lightweight self-powered exoskeleton that could help injured people walk again or assist the elderly in their daily tasks.” Fabio still gets excited when talking about his childhood dreams.

The intersection of childhood dreams and reality has always deeply attracted Fabio, driving him towards a career in biomedical engineering, fueled by the idea of using new technology to enable the infinite potential of humanity to interact with machines.

Now, technology has become a reality, and Fabio Tenebruso has become the medical technology director at Franka Emika, leading an interdisciplinary team dedicated to applying Franka Emika robots in the medical field.

▍Bridging Dreams and Reality

For the medical technology field, the most critical aspect of robots is their ability to provide safe human-robot interaction capabilities and sensitive force control, while affordability and lightweight design are also very important.

The Franka Emika robot possesses these characteristics, which gives Fabio more practical possibilities.

At the same time, to further develop in the medical field, the multifunctionality, reliability, and appropriate control interfaces of the robotic systems are also crucial. If needed for research and development, the Franka Emika robot can also perform low-level control, providing more possibilities for in-depth research. For instance, experts from the Munich Institute of Technology’s MITI research group hope to try using robots in conjunction with remote diagnostic systems to achieve contactless diagnosis, further reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection and ensuring safer examinations.

In this ProteCT project, doctors can conduct medical examinations on patients from a distance. The Franka Emika technical team has employed a teleoperation solution that includes three robots, additional sensors, external cameras, and variable end effectors, which can be used to record heart sounds, scan the abdomen, lightly tap, and listen to the chest to diagnose COVID-19.

In the specific process, doctors first discuss the patient’s medical history through video switching, then the subjects perform simple examinations such as measuring temperature according to the doctor’s instructions and video guidance. After completing these basic diagnoses, two Franka Emika robots examined the standing and lying test subjects. Doctors monitor the real-time transmitted images from the cabin’s cameras on the control room’s console, controlling every movement of the robotic arms.

“Despite the spatial separation, the latest transmission technology helps us ensure a reliable doctor-patient relationship,” explains Jonas Fuchtmann, an engineer from the MITI team. Doctors can always see the test subjects well through the cameras and microphones and hear their voices. Additionally, the robots are equipped with sensitive force sensors, allowing precise setting and adjustment of resistance levels to prevent the robotic fingers from applying excessive pressure.

(The robotic arm tests the subject’s throat sample through a small opening)

ProteCT is just one of the many deep applications of robots in the medical field.

In COVID-19 testing, the Franka Emika robot arm has also been developed for throat swab testing. The robot can grasp a swab, carefully insert it into the subject’s open mouth, and meticulously wipe the throat with a circular motion to achieve low-contact sampling.

The focus and challenge of this test is the stability of sample quality, as there is a significant correlation between the quality of throat swab tests and the source of the tests. However, while the quality of previous samples depended on the examiner, using robots makes it very stable and efficient, allowing up to 60 tests per hour, with high accuracy and reliability in sampling.

This remote medical approach based on robots allows for reliable and safe medical diagnosis even in isolation.

Currently, this autonomous and contactless safe testing station solution based on robots has been certified by German authorities and approved as a Class I medical product, promising to contribute significantly to combating the pandemic.

▍Creating New Medical Possibilities

Fabio believes that in the future, robots can provide more effective assistance to both healthcare professionals and patients.

“I believe there is a great possibility of integrating Franka Emika’s technology into the medical field. Because current technology can achieve very precise spatial positioning of surgical and non-surgical instruments, thus professionally replicating specific medical processes. Robots allow doctors to perform surgeries on patients remotely and assist patients with various daily activities from physical therapy to personal care,” Fabio stated. “Our goal is to improve people’s lives by using robots to help them complete small, more complex tasks, making healthcare professionals’ work safer and easier.”

For example, the Franka Emika robot is also used in dentistry, assisting doctors in examining patients. Doctors can activate the robot via a simple interface to get assistance from the robot at various stages of diagnosis and treatment.

In addition, the Franka Emika robot can also support palliative care for ALS patients and is a good idea for assisting in the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

▍Technological Breakthroughs in Medical Scenarios

Why is Franka Emika’s technology so suitable for medical technology?

The success of these application cases in the medical field largely depends on the technological breakthroughs made by Franka Emika in the medical domain.

For instance, in terms of interactivity, to enhance the smoothness and reliability of interaction between robots and healthcare professionals, researchers at Franka Emika studied the behavior of robots interacting with external clinical environments (especially with healthcare professionals) and established a dedicated Franka Emika collaborative robot simulator platform (CSP) for medical applications, which constructs a kinematic and dynamic model of robots suitable for medical scenarios, providing more stable and safe interaction possibilities.

In order to facilitate faster and more effective online payload identification during the application of collaborative robots in medical scenarios, Franka Emika researchers have developed four methods for identifying inertial parameters, accurately identifying the inertial parameters of the payload held by the collaborative robot’s end effector, thus making it easier to implement torque control methods, including static and dynamic effect compensation like gravity compensation.

▍About the Future

Fabio also shared with us his vision of working in the medical technology field and some thoughts and dreams about the future development of this field.

Fabio stated that the Franka Emika medical technology team is a very young team, composed of many biomedical and robotics talents with different expertise. Currently, the team is focusing on integrating robots into the biomedical field, becoming a “tool” for professionals in this domain.

This includes understanding how robots can help different users perform routine operations and creating new applications that were previously impossible. For example, safely, flexibly, and efficiently conducting COVID-19 tests through automated guided PCR and rapid antigen testing.

As a lightweight robot suitable for medical development, Franka Emika will undoubtedly open more doors to medical scenarios in the future.

Reference Links:

https://www.mri.tum.de/news/robotik-und-telemedizin-fuer-mehr-sicherheit-der-corona-pandemie

Robotics and Telemedicine for More Safety in the Corona Pandemic

https://www.vbw-bayern.de/vbw/PresseCenter/Roboter-f%C3%BCr-automatisierte-Corona-Abstriche-vorgestellt.jsp

Robots for Automated Corona Swabs Presented / Hatz: “Fight the Corona Pandemic with High Tech from Bavaria”

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-75259-0_11

Development of a Franka Emika Cobot Simulator Platform (CSP) Dedicated to Medical Applications

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-48989-2_15

Online Payload Identification of a Franka Emika Robot for Medical Applications

https://www.franka.de/cn/highlights/SR-NOCS/

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