Dana Damian - Sustainable robotic devices for personalized medical assistance

One of the next technological frontiers in medicine is the realization of personalized robots that integrate seamlessly with the human to perform repair or augmentation of various biological functions over extended period of time. In this talk I will introduce two types of robotic devices that act as prostheses outside and inside the human body, emphasizing on their specific biology-imposed challenges and on technological approaches for personalized medical assistance. First, I will present a prosthetic skin for restoring a rich tactile sense to prosthesis wearers, and for assisting the integration of the prosthetic hand as part of their body. Second, I will introduce an autonomous robotic implant that aims to grow tissue in vivo for the treatment of esophageal atresia.