NTU iCeiRA

A few years ago, I met one of the previous versions of the REEM robot. REEM was taller and broader than me, and its big, black eyes tracked me as I moved. When I shifted, its stare followed. It watched me with target-locked precision, like a laser into my soul.

Studies, which have been carried out furthering the results achieved in 2008, led in 2013 to this latest experimental phase called LifeHand 2. The research project enabling experimentation was named NEMESIS (NEurocontrolled MEchatronic Hand ProstheSIS) and was financed by the Italian Ministry of Health.

Up to 31% of interactions between surgeons and scrub nurses in the operating room (OR) involve errors that can have negative effects on patients. The proposed research will reduce the morbidity risks to patients due to communication failures and retained surgical instruments (instruments being left in patients) by introducing a robotic scrub nurse that responds to hand gesture commands. This research provides an accurate and rapid method of detecting the need for specific surgical instruments (through gestures), thus increasing efficiency and lessening the risk of complications.