Medical Design Briefs - February 2021 - 31

tioning and movement without any visual input.
" Our codeveloped wireless sensors with
customer designated sensing performance allow the robots to conduct highprecision motions, and the feedback
sensing data can be transmitted wirelessly, which cohere to the approaches of
Realtek Singapore in wireless smart factory. Realtek will continue to build up a
strong collaboration with NUS, and we
look forward to bringing the technologies from the lab to market, " says Dr Yeh
Po-Leh, chairman of Realtek Singapore.

■ Robotic Surgery
The team is also looking to improve
the sensor's capabilities and is working
with Singapore General Hospital to
explore the application of the sensors in
soft exoskeleton robots for rehabilitation and in surgical robots for transoral
robotic surgery.
" As a surgeon, we rely on not just our
sight but also our sense of touch to feel
the area inside the body where we operate. Cancerous tissues, for instance, feel

different from normal, healthy tissue. By
adding ultra-thin wireless sensing modules to long robotic tools, we can reach
and operate in areas where our hands
can't reach and potentially feel the tissue stiffness without the need for open
surgery, " says Dr. Lim Chwee Ming, senior consultant, OtorhinolaryngologyHead & Neck Surgery, Singapore
General Hospital.
For more information, visit https://news.
nus.edu.sg.

■ Customizable, Ultra-Sensitive
Sensors
The technological breakthrough is
the development of a production
process that allows the NUS researchers
to create highly customizable ultrasensitive sensors over a wide working
window with high signal-to-noise ratios.
A sensor's working window determines
how much it can stretch while still maintaining its sensing qualities, and having a
high signal-to-noise ratio means greater
accuracy as the sensor can differentiate
between subtle vibrations and minute
movements of the robotic arm.
This production process allows the
team to customize their sensors to any
working window between 0 and 900 percent while maintaining high sensitivity
and signal-to-noise ratio. Standard sensors can typically achieve a range of up
to 100 percent. By combining multiple
sensors with different working windows,
NUS researchers can create a single
ultra-sensitive sensor that would otherwise be impossible to achieve.
The research team took two years to
develop this breakthrough and have
since published their work in the scientific journal ACS Nano. They also have a
working prototype of the application of
the soft exoskeletons in a soft robotic
rehabilitation glove.
" These advanced flexible sensors give
our soft wearable robots an important
capability in sensing patient's motor performance, particularly in terms of their
range of motion. This will ultimately
enable the soft robot to better understand the patient's ability and provide
the necessary assistance to their hand
movements, " says Associate Professor
Raye Yeow, who heads a soft robotics lab
in NUS Biomedical Engineering and
leads the soft and hybrid robotics program under the National Robotics R&D
Programme Office.
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Medical Design Briefs, February 2021

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Medical Design Briefs - February 2021

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