Conference Agenda

Seventy-five years after the first industrial robots tackled the three D’s – dirty, dull, and dangerous work – today’s robots inhabit our homes, hospitals, and even our bodies. This talk explores how advances in design, fabrication, and physical human-robot interaction are enabling a new generation of medical technologies to support an aging population. I will begin with teleoperated surgical systems, which have become a standard tool in operating rooms. New flexible robot designs and human-centered artificial intelligence aim to improve the precision of these systems and enhance patient outcomes. Building on these advances, I will then introduce 3D robotic bioprinters, inspired by surgical robots, that have the potential to fabricate entire biological organs. Finally, I will describe emerging approaches to physical assistance using soft robotic structures. These include wearable devices that provide comfortable haptic feedback, gentle robotic systems that lift patients, and self-donning garments. These technologies combine softness and structural support to create new ways of controlling shape, generating meaningful forces, and interacting safely and effectively with the human body.