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  Huihuan Qian

  Vice President at z6首页; Assistant Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

  Executive Chair

  Bio

  Dr. Qian received his B. Eng. (2004) in Automation from University of Science and Technology of China. Thereafter, he joined the Department of Automation and Computer-Aided Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as a Research Assistant (2004-2005), and received his Ph.D. (2010) in Automation and Computer-Aided Engineering. He worked in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at the same university as a Research Associate (2010-2012) after graduation, and as a Research Assistant Professor (2012-2015) before he joined the School of Science and Engineering in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He serves as Associate Director of State Joint Engineering Laboratory on Robotics and Intelligent Manufacturing.

  Dr. Qian has published 2 monographs, 1 edited book, and over 100 papers in international journal and conferences, and awarded 6 patents. He is currently PI of an NSFC Key project, has completed 2 projects funded by Hong Kong SAR Governments as PI, and completed 10 projects in Hong Kong SAR and Mainland China as a key member. He has received the Best Transaction Paper Award from IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics in 2011 with his colleagues, based on the research of steering interface for omni-directional vehicles. With his postgraduate/undergraduate students, he has received a number awards recently, including IROS2020 Best Application Paper Finalist, ROBIO2019 Best Paper Finalist, RCAR2019 Best Paper Finalist, WCICA2018 Best Student Paper Finalist. He has served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief in Special Issue on Intelligent Robots, Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering, and is now an Associate Editor in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and an Area Chair in Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS).

  His research interests include robotics and intelligent systems, especially marine robotics, nano/micro robotics, intelligent art systems, etc.

  Abstract
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  Ka-Wai Kwok

  Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong

  Intelligent modelling and control of flexible and soft surgical robotic instruments

  Bio

  Ka-Wai Kwok received the B.Eng. and M.Phil. degrees from Department of Automation and Computer-aided Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003 and 2005, respectively. He obtained the Ph.D. degree from the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, Department of Computing, Imperial College London in 2012. He is currently an Associate Professor at Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong (HKU). Prior to joining HKU in 2014, he was awarded the Croucher Foundation Fellowship, which supported his research jointly supervised by advisors in The University of Georgia, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. His research interests focus on surgical robotics, intra-operative image processing, and their uses of intelligent systems, in particular for endoscopy, stereotactic and intra-cardiac catheter interventions. To date, he has co-authored with over 50 clinical fellows and 90 engineering scientists. Many of his invention IPs (>5) have been licensed/transferred to his medical industrial partners in support for their commercialization.

  Dr. Kwok's multidisciplinary work has been recognized by various international conference/journal paper awards (>10), e.g. the Best Conference Paper Award in 2018 ICRA (IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation). He also became the recipient of IROS Toshio Fukuda Young Professional Award in 2020 IROS (IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems), for his contributions to MRI-guided robotic systems. He also obtained various awards in his early career in robotics, e.g. the Early Career Awards 2015/16 offered by Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, Actuators 2020 Young Investigator Award, HKU 2019-2021 Outstanding Young Researcher Award and HKU Young Innovator Award 2020. He also serves as Associate Editor for IROS 2017-21, ICRA 2019-21, Annals of Biomedical Engineering (ABME), as well as IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine (RAM). He is the principal investigator of Group for Interventional Robotic and Imaging Systems (IRIS) at HKU.

  Abstract

  In recent years, there has been a trend towards integrating soft and deformable structures into surgical robot systems. Target applications include endoscopy or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided intervention, where researchers take advantage of soft and flexible robots for their inherent mechanical compliance. However, these flexible robotic systems are often controlled with feedback from either large tracking systems, using indirect variables (e.g. fluid pressure in soft actuators), or in an open loop, neglecting the fact that actual robot shape and posture are inevitably affected by surrounding. Not only the real-time feedback of soft robot configuration or morphology itself is of importance, but also the robot kinematics and dynamics modelling, as well as its control become an area of interest. To this end, this talk will overview our machine intelligent approaches, and also the recent advances in continuum robot design and learning-based control, which potentially resolve the control challenges of providing a safe, precise and effective surgical manipulation.

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  Zhenglong Sun

  Assistant Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

  Towards next generation of surgical robots: future directions and challenges

  Bio

  Zhenglong Sun received his B.Eng., M.Eng. and Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He was previously a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University, USA, and research fellow in the SUTD-MIT International Design Center, Singapore. He is currently an assistant professor in the School of Science and Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China. He is a senior member of IEEE, and has published over 70 journal and conference publications in the fields of robotics and biomedical engineering, with 1328 total citations, h-index 15. His research interests include medical/surgical robotics, human robot interaction and collaboration.

  Abstract

  More and more surgical procedures have adopted such technologies in the surgical theatre over the past two decades. On one hand, the surgeons could have better manipulation, more accurate operation, and less risk to potential radiation, on the other hand, the patients could benefit from smaller incision, less trauma, potentially shorter hospitalization period and less risk of complications. Continual innovations in robotics technologies are pushing the limits of what surgical robotics can achieve. With the advancements in surgical robotics, new technologies could enable the surgeons to perform certain procedures, which can be hard if not completely impossible, to operate with conventional tools. Researchers have been endeavoring to push the boundary of the technologies towards this goal. This could be technical demanding in terms of the robot design, fabrication methods, and even assembly skills, pushing the boundary to the limit. In this talk, we will briefly review the history of surgical robot development, and discuss some future research and development directions.

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