Aims and Scope

Original call for papers.

Medical robotics has grown significantly over the last two decades in almost all the disciplines of medicine. Robots can aid the physician in several aspects: assisting diagnostic and surgery, performing a biopsy, dispensing medication, visualizing enclosed spaces inside the body, etc. More recently, there has been a rising interest in the miniaturization of these robots for less and less invasive or even non-invasive surgery. These miniaturized medical robots will allow making it possible to break down certain barriers related to the size and accessibility of some areas of the human body (vessels, arteries, deep intrapulmonary pathways, etc.). Such systems may provide many advantages, such as limited invasiveness, reduced trauma, or carrying out operations beyond the limits of the human precision or sensing abilities. The development of such small size robots involves several disciplines including mechatronics, robotics, advanced materials, fabrication technologies, actuation, imaging small robots, etc. The eco-system created around the fundamental and technological issues related to small-scale robotics in medicine have led to the emergence of original and promising concepts, especially in the last few years. This special issue aims to gather academic and engineers from different backgrounds to emphasize the state of the art, the current and future trends of this highly interdisciplinary field. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, through the guest editors of this special section, invite to report the latest advances and recent accomplishments in this area related to miniaturized robotics for medical purposes.