Manipulation Capabilities Research Articles

3D-Printed Möbius Microring Lasers: Topology Engineering in Photonic Microstructures.

Manipulating photons in artificially structured materials is highly desired in modern photonic technology. Nontrivial topological structures are rapidly emerging as a state-of-art platform for achieving unprecedented fascinating phenomena of photon manipulation. However, the current studies mainly focus on planar structures, and the fabrication of photonic microstructures with specific topological geometric features still remains a great challenge. Extending the topological photonics to 3Dmicroarchitectures is expected to enrich the photon manipulation capabilities and further advance the topological photonic devices. Here, a femtosecond laser direct writing technique is employed to fabricate 3D topological Möbius microring resonators from dye-doped polymer. The high-quality-factor Möbius microring resonator supports a unique spin-orbit coupled lasing at very low threshold. Due to the spin-orbit coupling induced geometric/Berry phase, the Möbius microrings, in striking contrast with ordinary microrings, output laser signals with all polarization states. The manipulation of miniaturized coherent light sources in the fabricated Möbius microrings represents a significant step forward toward 3D topological photonics that offers a novel design philosophy for functional photonic and optoelectronic devices.

A comparison of robotic versus laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy: a single surgeon's robotic experience in a high-volume center.

Robotic surgery is the most recent advanced minimally invasive approach for distal pancreatectomy. However, its benefits over laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (LDP) remain undetermined. Previous studies were limited by their small sample size or variations in surgeon skills. This study aimed to compare robotic distal pancreatectomy (RDP) performed by a single surgeon with LDP performed by skilled laparoscopic surgeons in a high-volume center. We retrospectively analyzed consecutive RDP performed by a single surgeon between December 2020 and November 2021 with LDP performed by experienced surgeons during the same period in a high-volume center. Patient characteristics and perioperative variables were compared. The analysis included 55 RDP and 146 LDP procedures. The operative time in the RDP group was significantly shorter than the LDP group (171 vs. 222min, P < 0.001), both in spleen-preserved (154 vs. 212min, P < 0.001) and spleen-removed (192 vs. 230min, P = 0.005) procedures. The RDP group made more frequent use of the stapler technique for pancreas transection (87.3 vs. 68.5%, P = 0.007), and its estimated blood loss was lower (79 vs. 155mL, P < 0.001) than the LDP group. The postoperative hospital stay in the RDP group was significantly shorter than the LDP group (8 vs. 12days, P < 0.001). The groups were similar in their complication distributions. RDP is as safe and feasible a minimally invasive approach as LDP. The advanced manipulation and visualization capabilities of the robotic approach in distal pancreatectomy could help reduce operative time and blood loss, and is related to shorter postoperative hospital stay.

Scalable-Manufactured Metamaterials for Simultaneous Visible Transmission, Infrared Reflection, and Microwave Absorption.

Scalable manufacturing of metamaterials with multispectral manipulation capabilities remains highly challenging, which was generally circumvented by integrating several single-spectral metamaterials, potentially leading to complex processes, large thicknesses, and limited fabrication size. We experimentally demonstrate a standalone and scalable-manufactured multispectral metamaterial featuring simultaneous visible transmission, infrared reflection, and microwave absorption. The prepared multispectral metamaterial with an area of 255 cm2 exhibits a visible transmittance of 74.5% at wavelengths of 400-700 nm (the highest 80.2% at 510 nm), a thermal emissivity of 0.08 at the infrared (IR) wavelengths of 2.5-20 μm (the lowest 0.03 at 19.5 μm), and a microwave absorptance of 63.4% at frequencies of 8.2-12.4 GHz (the near-perfect 97.4% at 11.5 GHz) on average with a deep-subwavelength thickness of λ/47. The deep-subwavelength multispectral metamaterial consists of a submillimeter-thick polyethylene terephthalate dielectric spacer sandwiched by a patterned ultrathin metal and a metal mesh back-reflector with ultralow sheet resistances. Unlike the conventional optically transparent microwave absorbers made from indium tin oxides, the surface plasmonic modes can be excited within the submillimeter-thick multispectral metamaterial, bringing about the gap plasmon polaritons-induced microwave attenuation, together with the excellent visible transparency and high IR reflection/low IR emissivity. This work may inspire the designs and practical production of standalone multispectral metamaterials and benefit the protection against ubiquitous IR and microwave reconnaissance without impeding visual observation.

Wafer-scale self-assembled 2.5D metasurface for efficient near-field and far-field electromagnetic manipulation

Although current 2D metasurfaces have emerged as a paradigm platform for electromagnetic (EM) manipulation with enhanced and flexible functions over conventional optical components, their performance is intrinsically limited by constrained interaction with the EM waves due to reduced dimensions. Besides, fabrication of 2D metasurfaces over large areas remains complex and high cost especially in the visible spectrum, further limiting their practical applications. Here, a kind of metal–insulator-metal (MIM) 2.5D metasurfaces is proposed with enriched EM manipulation capabilities in both near-field and far-field compared with their planar counterparts. Moreover, wafer-scale fabrication with high uniformity is also realized by a lithography-free method. As a proof of concept, we experimentally demonstrate three kinds of centimeter-scale metadevices achieving broadband EM absorption (average absorption over 91% within 400–1200 nm), structural color display (coverage of the primary colors red, green and blue (RGB)) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (largest enhancement factor of 3.29 × 107 and relative standard deviation less than 9%), respectively. It is envisioned that the proposed 2.5D metasurfaces may empower many potential applications in EM absorption, sensing and optical displays.

Metasurface‐Assisted Optical Encryption Carrying Camouflaged Information

AbstractThe superior capability of light manipulation makes optical metasurfaces capable of high‐quality multichannel displays, demonstrating great potential in high‐security optical encryption. Different from the previous multichannel nanoprinting metasurfaces based on the sophisticated nanostructure design, Malus metasurface can obtain multichannel meta‐images only by arranging the orientations of single‐sized nanostructures and thus have gained great attention. Here, an optical encryption scheme based on single‐sized nanostructures is proposed by introducing camouflage strategy into Malus metasurfaces design processes to store multiple meta‐images in different encryption levels. Experimental results demonstrate that the preset camouflage meta‐image can be decoded by inserting a filter and a polarizer in the incident light path, while the decryption of real meta‐image requires not only the insertion of a filter and polarizer in the incident optical path, but also the insertion of an analyzer in the outgoing optical path and setting them to the specific polarization direction. This work eliminates the consistency of encryption level in conventional multi‐channel Malus metasurface, builds the differences of preset camouflage information and real information in decryption difficulty, and easily merges with other works, thereby paving a new way toward a high‐security optical encryption technology.

Spatially bivariate EEG-neurofeedback can manipulate interhemispheric inhibition.

Human behavior requires inter-regional crosstalk to employ the sensorimotor processes in the brain. Although external neuromodulation techniques have been used to manipulate interhemispheric sensorimotor activity, a central controversy concerns whether this activity can be volitionally controlled. Experimental tools lack the power to up- or down-regulate the state of the targeted hemisphere over a large dynamic range and, therefore, cannot evaluate the possible volitional control of the activity. We addressed this difficulty by using the recently developed method of spatially bivariate electroencephalography (EEG)-neurofeedback to systematically enable the participants to modulate their bilateral sensorimotor activities. Here, we report that participants learn to up- and down-regulate the ipsilateral excitability to the imagined hand while maintaining constant contralateral excitability; this modulates the magnitude of interhemispheric inhibition (IHI) assessed by the paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) paradigm. Further physiological analyses revealed that the manipulation capability of IHI magnitude reflected interhemispheric connectivity in EEG and TMS, which was accompanied by intrinsic bilateral cortical oscillatory activities. Our results show an interesting approach for neuromodulation, which might identify new treatment opportunities, e.g., in patients suffering from a stroke.

Split-ring resonator coupling-induced tunable acoustic second-order topological insulators

The recent higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) encoded with the tight-binding model (TBM) have been demonstrated beyond traditional bulk-edge correspondence, which shows the exotic capability of sound manipulation. However, the current waveguide resonator model with weak tunability in hopping controls has been used as the most common method to construct the TBM directly in a realistic acoustic system. Here, we present another carrier and methodology to realize the TBM based on split-ring resonators (SRRs) coupling in a realistic physical platform and construct a second-order topological insulator (SOTI) based on it, where the hopping and frequencies of the topological corner states can be easily tuned by adjusting the coupling strength of the SRRs. Numerical analysis and experimental measurement demonstrated zero-dimensional topological corner states in this acoustic resonant system. The findings provide a more flexible method for tunable acoustic HOTIs realization.

Novel Design of a Cable-Driven Continuum Robot With Multiple Motion Patterns

Cable-driven continuum robots exhibit accessing and manipulation capabilities in constrained and cluttered environments that are unachievable for traditional robots composing of discrete links and joints. However, the existing continuum robots structured by non-scalable backbones are monofunctional, merely capable of providing bending degree of freedom, not allowing regional elongation that is necessary for dexterous manipulation. In this paper, we present a particular tensegrity topology for the continuum robotic design with an additional stretching degree of freedom, by which the robot can achieve high flexibility in both bending and contraction motion patterns for more configurable operations. To quantify kinematics of the robot under various motion patterns, we build a mechanical model following a positional formulation finite element method. Guided by the theoretical results, a triple-segmented continuum robot is designed and fabricated. To reduce the control complexity, we regulate the individual stiffness of each segment, by which the motion coupling among the segments can be eliminated. Moreover, we also demonstrate the potential applications of this robotic design in tasks of traveling through holes and avoiding obstacles.

Adaptive Compliant Skill Learning for Contact-Rich Manipulation With Human in the Loop

It is essential for the robot manipulator to adapt to unexpected events and dynamic environments while executing the physical contact-rich tasks. Although a range of methods have been investigated to enhance the adaptability and generalization capability of robot manipulation, it is still difficult to perform complex contact-rich tasks, e.g., rolling pizza dough and robot-assisted medical scanning, without the assistance from a human in the loop. We proposed a novel framework combining learning from demonstration (LfD) and human experience to enhance the safety and adaptability of the robot manipulation. In this framework, dynamic movement primitives (DMPs) is employed for manipulation skills learning from demonstrations, and human correction is applied to update the pre-trained DMPs skills model. We conducted experiments on the Franka Emika Panda Robot with pizza dough rolling tasks. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework could effectively improve the performance of the physical contact-rich tasks, and the human correction method through teleoperation provides a potential solution for advanced interaction tasks with complex and dynamic physical properties.

Wide-Angle Impedance Matching Layer-Enhanced Dual-Polarization sub-6 GHz Wide-Scan Array for Next-Generation Base Stations

A new sub-6 GHz antenna array that supports slant ±45° dual-polarization multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications with high interport isolation and stable radiation performance over wide scan angles and bandwidths is designed. An architecturally inexpensive solution, which combines a standard truncated waveguide array and a single-layer patterned metasurface superstrate with wave manipulation capabilities, is proposed. A task-oriented formulation is adopted to mathematically formulate the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">EM</i> associated multiscale design problem, then solved with an innovative instance of the system-by-design (SbD) paradigm where the fast and reliable modeling of the device is yielded by an <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ad hoc</i> artificial intelligence-based surrogate. The final layout of the antenna array is validated with industry-standard full-wave numerical simulators.

Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery—Surgical Robotics in the Data Age

Telesurgical robotics, as a technical solution for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RAMIS), has become the first domain within medicosurgical robotics that achieved a true global clinical adoption. Its relative success (still at a low single-digit percentile total market penetration) roots in the particular human-in-the-loop control, in which the trained surgeon is always kept responsible for the clinical outcome achieved by the robot-actuated invasive tools. Nowadays, this paradigm is challenged by the need for improved surgical performance, traceability, and safety reaching beyond the human capabilities. Partially due to the technical complexity and the financial burden, the adoption of telesurgical robotics has not reached its full potential, by far. Apart from the absolutely market-dominating da Vinci surgical system, there are already 60+ emerging RAMIS robot types, out of which 15 have already achieved some form of regulatory clearance. This article aims to connect the technological advancement with the principles of commercialization, particularly looking at engineering components that are under development and have the potential to bring significant advantages to the clinical practice. Current RAMIS robots often do not exceed the functionalities deriving from their mechatronics, due to the lack of data-driven assistance and smart human–machine collaboration. Computer assistance is gradually gaining more significance within emerging RAMIS systems. Enhanced manipulation capabilities, refined sensors, advanced vision, task-level automation, smart safety features, and data integration mark together the inception of a new era in telesurgical robotics, infiltrated by machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Observing other domains, it is definite that a key requirement of a robust AI is the good quality data, derived from proper data acquisition and sharing to allow building solutions in real time based on ML. Emerging RAMIS technologies are reviewed both in a historical and a future perspective.

State of the Art and Future Opportunities in MRI-Guided Robot-Assisted Surgery and Interventions.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide high-quality 3-D visualization of target anatomy, surrounding tissue, and instrumentation, but there are significant challenges in harnessing it for effectively guiding interventional procedures. Challenges include the strong static magnetic field, rapidly switching magnetic field gradients, high-power radio frequency pulses, sensitivity to electrical noise, and constrained space to operate within the bore of the scanner. MRI has a number of advantages over other medical imaging modalities, including no ionizing radiation, excellent soft-tissue contrast that allows for visualization of tumors and other features that are not readily visible by other modalities, true 3-D imaging capabilities, including the ability to image arbitrary scan plane geometry or perform volumetric imaging, and capability for multimodality sensing, including diffusion, dynamic contrast, blood flow, blood oxygenation, temperature, and tracking of biomarkers. The use of robotic assistants within the MRI bore, alongside the patient during imaging, enables intraoperative MR imaging (iMRI) to guide a surgical intervention in a closed-loop fashion that can include tracking of tissue deformation and target motion, localization of instrumentation, and monitoring of therapy delivery. With the ever-expanding clinical use of MRI, MRI-compatible robotic systems have been heralded as a new approach to assist interventional procedures to allow physicians to treat patients more accurately and effectively. Deploying robotic systems inside the bore synergizes the visual capability of MRI and the manipulation capability of robotic assistance, resulting in a closed-loop surgery architecture. This article details the challenges and history of robotic systems intended to operate in an MRI environment and outlines promising clinical applications and associated state-of-the-art MRI-compatible robotic systems and technology for making this possible.

Learning Losses for Strategic Classification

Strategic classification, i.e. classification under possible strategic manipulations of features, has received a lot of attention from both the machine learning and the game theory community. Most works focus on analysing properties of the optimal decision rule under such manipulations. In our work we take a learning theoretic perspective, focusing on the sample complexity needed to learn a good decision rule which is robust to strategic manipulation. We perform this analysis by introducing a novel loss function, the strategic manipulation loss, which takes into account both the accuracy of the final decision rule and its vulnerability to manipulation. We analyse the sample complexity for a known graph of possible manipulations in terms of the complexity of the function class and the manipulation graph. Additionally, we initialize the study of learning under unknown manipulation capabilities of the involved agents. Using techniques from transfer learning theory, we define a similarity measure for manipulation graphs and show that learning outcomes are robust with respect to small changes in the manipulation graph. Lastly, we analyse the (sample complexity of) learning of the manipulation capability of agents with respect to this similarity measure, providing novel guarantees for strategic classification with respect to an unknown manipulation graph.

Broadband acoustic meta-porous layer for reflected wave manipulation and absorption

Acoustic metasurfaces (AMs) used for reflected sound wavefront manipulation are generally designed based on the generalized Snell’s law (GSL) at a single frequency, suffering from inferior broadband properties. Herein, an acoustic meta-porous layer (AMPL) with periodic structures is designed to realize reflected wavefront manipulation and effective sound absorption over a wide frequency band. The AMPL is constructed by four periodically arranged units, each consisting of porous elements inserted by acoustically rigid partitions, forming a linear reflected phase-shifting within 0 to 2π maintaining in a target frequency range of [1000,3000]Hz. To predict the reflected response of the element of the AMPL, an analytical model is proposed based on the transfer matrix method and is numerically validated. The sound reflection and absorption performance of the AMPL is investigated numerically and experimentally. The scattering sound pressure fields under normally and obliquely incident sound waves at different frequencies demonstrate the broadband reflected wavefront manipulation capability, including negative reflection and surface wave conversion. Compared to a uniform porous foam, an effective absorption is achieved by the AMPL due to the surface wave excitation at an identical thickness of 40 mm, with an averaged absorption coefficient greater than 0.9 in [800,3000]Hz. The results suggest the proposed structure could be a promising candidate of broadband noise absorption metamaterial for practical applications.

Understanding on CRISPR/Cas9 mediated cutting-edge approaches for cancer therapeutics.

The research focus on CRISPR/Cas9 has gained substantial concentration since the discovery of ‘an unusual repeat sequence’ reported by Ishino et al. (J Bacteriol 169:5429–5433, 1987) and the journey comprises the recent Nobel Prize award (2020), conferred to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. Cumulatively, the CRISPR has a short, compact, and most discussed success of its application in becoming one of the most versatile and paradigm shifting technologies of Biological Research. Today, the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system is almost ubiquitously utilized in many facets of biological research where its tremendous gene manipulation capability has been harnessed to create miracles. From 2012, the CRISPR/Cas 9 system has been showcased in almost 15,000 research articles in the PubMed database, till date. Backed by some strong molecular evidence, the CRISPR system has been utilized in a few clinical trials targeted towards various pathologies. While the area covered by CRISPR is cosmic, this review will focus mostly on the utilization of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in the field of cancer therapy.

Rigorous analysis of the axial acoustic radiation force on a spherical object for single-beam acoustic tweezing applications.

Acoustic tweezers are increasingly utilized for the contactless manipulation of small particles. This paper provides a theoretical model demonstrating the acoustic manipulation capabilities of single-beam acoustic transducers. Analytical formulas are derived for the acoustic radiation force on an isotropic spherical object of arbitrary size, centered on a circular piston, simply supported and clamped radiator in an inviscid fluid. Using these results, the existence of a negative axial force pulling the object closer to the radiator is revealed and explored. These findings offer further insight into the feasibility of trapping objects in the near-field of a single-beam acoustic transducer. The calculations illustrate the trapping capabilities of the different emitters as a function of radiator size, particle size, and distance from the source and highlight the impact of radiator boundary conditions. Manipulation of a cell-like fluid sphere in water and an expanded polystyrene sphere in air are studied in more detail with results that are validated through finite element analysis. The developed theoretical model allows fast evaluation of acoustic radiation forces which could aid in the development of relatively simple and inexpensive contactless manipulation solutions.

Periodic corner holes on the Si(111)-7×7 surface can trap silver atoms

Advancement in nanotechnology to a large extent depends on the ability to manipulate materials at the atomistic level, including positioning single atoms on the active sites of the surfaces of interest, promoting strong chemical bonding. Here, we report a long-time confinement of a single Ag atom inside a corner hole (CH) of the technologically relevant Si(111)-7×7 surface, which has comparable size as a fullerene C60 molecule with a single dangling bond at the bottom center. Experiments reveal that a set of 17 Ag atoms stays entrapped in the CH for the entire duration of experiment, 4 days and 7 h. Warming up the surface to about 150 °C degrees forces the Ag atoms out of the CH within a few minutes. The processes of entrapment and diffusion are temperature dependent. Theoretical calculations based on density functional theory support the experimental results confirming the highest adsorption energy at the CH for the Ag atom, and suggest that other elements such as Li, Na, Cu, Au, F and I may display similar behavior. The capability of atomic manipulation at room temperature makes this effect particularly attractive for building single atom devices and possibly developing new engineering and nano-manufacturing methods.

A flexible gripper with a wide-range variable stiffness structure based on shape memory alloy

PurposeVariable stiffness structure can significantly improve the interactive capabilities of grippers. Shape memory alloys have become a popular option for materials with variable stiffness structures. However, its variable stiffness range is limited by its stiffness in two phases. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the manipulation capabilities of tendon-driven flexible grippers by designing a wide-range variable stiffness structure.Design/methodology/approachConstitutive models of shape memory alloy and mechanical models are used to analyze the performance of the variable stiffness structure. A separated solution was used to combine the tendon-driven gripper and the variable stiffness structure. The feed-forward control algorithm is used to enhance the control stability of the variable stiffness structure.FindingsThe stiffness variable capability of the proposed variable stiffness structure is verified by experiments. The stability of the feedback control algorithm was verified by sinusoidal tracking experiments. The variable stiffness range of 8.41 times of the flexible gripper was tested experimentally. The interaction capability of the variable stiffness flexible gripper is verified by the object grasping experiments.Originality/valueA new wide-range variable stiffness structure is proposed and validated. The new variable stiffness structure has a larger range of stiffness variation and better control stability. The new flexible structure can be applied to conventional grippers to help them gain stiffness variable capability and improve their interaction ability.

SpaceDrones 2.0—Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation and Validation for Orbital and Deep Space Computer Vision and Machine Learning Tasking Using Free-Flying Drone Platforms

The proliferation of reusable space vehicles has fundamentally changed how assets are injected into the low earth orbit and beyond, increasing both the reliability and frequency of launches. Consequently, it has led to the rapid development and adoption of new technologies in the aerospace sector, including computer vision (CV), machine learning (ML)/artificial intelligence (AI), and distributed networking. All these technologies are necessary to enable truly autonomous “Human-out-of-the-loop” mission tasking for spaceborne applications as spacecrafts travel further into the solar system and our missions become more ambitious. This paper proposes a novel approach for space-based computer vision sensing and machine learning simulation and validation using synthetically trained models to generate the large amounts of space-based imagery needed to train computer vision models. We also introduce a method of image data augmentation known as domain randomization to enhance machine learning performance in the dynamic domain of spaceborne computer vision to tackle unique space-based challenges such as orientation and lighting variations. These synthetically trained computer vision models then apply that capability for hardware-in-the-loop testing and evaluation via free-flying robotic platforms, thus enabling sensor-based orbital vehicle control, onboard decision making, and mobile manipulation similar to air-bearing table methods. Given the current energy constraints of space vehicles using solar-based power plants, cameras provide an energy-efficient means of situational awareness when compared to active sensing instruments. When coupled with computationally efficient machine learning algorithms and methods, it can enable space systems proficient in classifying, tracking, capturing, and ultimately manipulating objects for orbital/planetary assembly and maintenance (tasks commonly referred to as In-Space Assembly and On-Orbit Servicing). Given the inherent dangers of manned spaceflight/extravehicular activities (EVAs) currently employed to perform spacecraft maintenance and the current limitation of long-duration human spaceflight outside the low earth orbit, space robotics armed with generalized sensing and control and machine learning architecture have a unique automation potential. However, the tools and methodologies required for hardware-in-the-loop simulation, testing, and validation at a large scale and at an affordable price point are in developmental stages. By leveraging a drone’s free-flight maneuvering capability, theater projection technology, synthetically generated orbital and celestial environments, and machine learning, this work strives to build a robust hardware-in-the-loop testing suite. While the focus of the specific computer vision models in this paper is narrowed down to solving visual sensing problems in orbit, this work can very well be extended to solve any problem set that requires a robust onboard computer vision, robotic manipulation, and free-flight capabilities.

Holographic Manipulation of Nanostructured Fiber Optics Enables Spatially-Resolved, Reconfigurable Optical Control of Plasmonic Local Field Enhancement and SERS.

Integration of plasmonic structures on step-index optical fibers is attracting interest for both applications and fundamental studies. However, the possibility to dynamically control the coupling between the guided light fields and the plasmonic resonances is hindered by the turbidity of light propagation in multimode fibers (MMFs). This pivotal point strongly limits the range of studies that can benefit from nanostructured fiber optics. Fortunately, harnessing the interaction between plasmonic modes on the fiber tip and the full set of guided modes can bring this technology to a next generation progress. Here, the intrinsic wealth of information of guided modes is exploited to spatiotemporally control the plasmonic resonances of the coupled system. This concept is shown by employing dynamic phase modulation to structure both the response of plasmonic MMFs on the plasmonic facet and their response in the corresponding Fourier plane, achieving spatial selective field enhancement and direct control of the probe's work point in the dispersion diagram. Such a conceptual leap would transform the biomedical applications of holographic endoscopic imaging by integrating new sensing and manipulation capabilities.