Robot-assisted Surgery System Research Articles

Biomechanical analysis of pelvic holding pathways and strategies for use of the steinmann pin in pelvic fracture reduction

Pelvic fracture is the most serious bone trauma and has the highest mortality and disability rate. Surgical treatment of pelvic fracture is very challenging for surgeons. Minimally invasive close reduction of pelvic fracture is considered the most difficult operation due to the complex pelvic morphology and abundant soft tissue anatomy, both of which increase the difficulty of pelvic fracture reduction. The most challenging aspect of such surgery is how to hold the pelvic bone and effectively transmit the reduction force to the bone. Therefore, a safe and effective pelvic holding pathway for reduction is necessary for pelvic fracture operations. Existing research on the pelvic holding pathway addresses anatomical position and dimension. Few studies have focused on biomechanical properties or on surgical techniques related to these pathways. This paper studies the three holding pathways that are most commonly used in clinical practice. The most effective force direction for each holding pathway is identified through finite element modeling. Pathway 1 is suitable for internal rotation operation and open/close-book operation of the pelvis; Pathway 2 is suitable for translation of the fractured pelvis toward the sacrum and internal pelvic rotation operations; Pathway 3 is suitable for pulling and lifting of the fractured pelvis against gravity and open/close-book operation of the pelvis. In addition, we find through our simulation that the use of a combined holding strategy can reduce the reduction force during the reduction process. We compared the performances of the 2-pin combined holding strategy (2P–CH) and the 3-pin combined strategy (3P–CH). During translational reduction, 2P–CH and 3P–CH showed little difference in pelvic reduction force. However, in rotational reduction, 3P–CH shows advantages. It has less reduction force and the least combined muscle resistance. It can also maximize the displacement of the iliac crest under the same conditions. The results of this study can be applied to surgical planning and to the development of robot-assisted surgery systems in selecting holding pathways and operation strategies for fractured pelvis.

Total Knee Arthroplasty in Valgus Deformity Made Easy Using Robotic-assisted Predictive Balancing Technique

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) performed for valgus osteoarthritis (OA) presents a challenge to the arthroplasty surgeon in regards to achieving appropriate soft tissue balance and alignment. Robotic assisted surgery (RAS) with navigation (NAV) has been proposed as a potential solution to assist surgeons when performing these difficult cases. Here, we present the case of a complex primary TKA in a patient with posttraumatic valgus arthritis performed using a novel RAS system with NAV. Appropriate balance was unable to be achieved with bony cuts alone, as the knee was found to be tight laterally in extension following bone preparation. Soft tissue releases were ultimately required. Use of the novel RAS system with NAV allowed for a titrated soft tissue release resulting in a balanced knee without overcorrection of the patient’s deformity. We also present a similar case of a patient with valgus knee OA in which there was residual tightness laterally in flexion. The different management strategies for each of these cases is discussed. Finally, we provide a review of the available literature regarding TKA in valgus knee OA and propose a new classification system and treatment algorithm that can be employed using a novel RAS system with predictive balancing technology to achieve optimal alignment and soft tissue balancing in valgus knees that remain unbalanced following bony cuts.

Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy feasibility and setting with the Hugo™ robot-assisted surgery system.

Video S1. Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy feasibility and setting with the Hugo™ robot-assisted surgery system. Appendix S1. Transcription of the voice comments in the video S1. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Breast Surgery: Recent Evidence with Comparative Clinical Outcomes.

In recent times, robot-assisted surgery has been prominently gaining pace to minimize overall postsurgical complications with minimal traumatization, due to technical advancements in telerobotics and ergonomics. The aim of this review is to explore the efficiency of robot-assisted systems for executing breast surgeries, including microsurgeries, direct-to-implant breast reconstruction, deep inferior epigastric perforators-based surgery, latissimus dorsi breast reconstruction, and nipple-sparing mastectomy. Robot-assisted surgery systems are efficient due to 3D-based visualization, dexterity, and range of motion while executing breast surgery. The review describes the comparative efficiency of robot-assisted surgery in relation to conventional or open surgery, in terms of clinical outcomes, morbidity rates, and overall postsurgical complication rates. Potential cost-effective barriers and technical skills were also delineated as the major limitations associated with these systems in the clinical sector. Furthermore, instrument articulation of robot-assisted surgical systems (for example, da Vinci systems) can enable high accuracy and precision surgery due to its promising ability to mitigate tremors at the time of surgery, and shortened learning curve, making it more beneficial than other open surgery procedures.

Effect of the acetabular cup positioning and leg length restoration after total hip arthroplasty using robotic-assisted surgery system

Objective: To assess the improvement of the robotic-assisted total hip arthroplasty (rTHA) regarding the acetabular cup positioning and the leg length restoration. Methods: Clinical data of 246 patients undergoing primary unilateral THA from September 2019 to June 2021 in Peking University Third Hospital were retrospectively reviewed, including patients treated with rTHA (n=113) and conventional THA (cTHA) (n=133). Thirty-seven male patients along with 76 females were enrolled into the rTHA group with a mean age of (62±9) years. In comparison, the average age of cTHA group was (60±12) years with 59 males and 74 females. The postoperative inclination and anteversion of the acetabular cup and the rate of acetabular cup within the Lewinnek and Callanan "safe zone" were documented and analyzed. For the patient with normal or surgically restored contralateral hip, the leg length discrepancy was also measured and compared between the two groups. Results: The overall mean postoperative inclination and anteversion was 39.0°±5.5° and 14.1°±5.1°, respectively. No statistically significant difference was found between the rTHA and cTHA group regarding postoperative inclination (39.3°±2.9° vs 38.7°±7.0°, P=0.383) and anteversion (13.4°±4.3° vs 14.7°±5.6°, P=0.054). In rTHA group, 97.3%(110/113) of the cups were implanted within the Lewinnek"safe zone"(75.9%(101/133) in cTHA group) and 94.7%(107/113) were within the Callanan"safe zone"(66.2%(88/133) in cTHA group), and those were both higher in rTHA group (both P<0.01). There was no significant difference in postoperative leg length discrepancy between the two groups (P=0.445). Meanwhile, 29(23.0%) cases of cTHA group had leg length discrepancy more than 5 mm, and it was 9.7%(9/93) in rTHA group. Conclusion: It indicated the benefit of rTHA in acetabular cup positioning as well as the leg length restoration.

Deep Learning Based Image Processing for Robot Assisted Surgery: A Systematic Literature Survey

The recent advancements in the surging field of Deep Learning (DL) have revolutionized every sphere of life, and the healthcare domain is no exception. The enormous success of DL models, particularly with image data, has led to the development of image-guided Robot Assisted Surgery (RAS) systems. By and large, the number of studies concerning image-driven computer assisted surgical systems using DL has increased exponentially. Additionally, the contemporary availability of surgical datasets has also boosted the DL applications in RAS. Inspired by the latest trends and contributions in surgery, this literature survey presents a summarized analysis of recent innovations of DL in image-guided RAS systems. After a thorough review, a sum of 184 articles are selected and grouped into four categories, based on the literature and the relevancy of the task in the articles, comprising 1) Surgical Tools, 2) Surgical Processes, 3) Surgical Surveillance, and 4) Surgical Performance. The survey also discusses publicly available surgical datasets and highlights the basics of the DL models. Furthermore, the legal, ethical, and technological challenges together with the intuitive predictions and recommendations related to the autonomous RAS systems are also presented. The study reveals that Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is most widely adopted architecture, whereas, JIGSAWS is most employed dataset in RAS. The study suggests fusing kinematic data along with image data, which produces better accuracy and precision, particularly in gesture and trajectory segmentation tasks. Additionally, CNN and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks have shown remarkable performance, however, authors recommend employing these gigantic architectures only when simpler models have failed to produce satisfactory results. The simpler models, despite their limitations, are time and cost effective and yield considerable outcomes even on the smaller datasets.

Current Status of Transoral Surgery for Patients With Early-Stage Pharyngeal and Laryngeal Cancers in Japan.

As the laryngopharynx is closely related to swallowing, speech, and phonation, it is necessary to consider not only disease control but also a minimally invasive approach for the treatment of laryngopharyngeal cancer. Transoral surgery has been reported to be a minimally invasive method for treating these diseases. Transoral videolaryngoscopic surgery (TOVS) and endoscopic laryngo-pharyngeal surgery (ELPS) have been developed in Japan and recently emerged as treatments for patients with early stage pharyngeal and laryngeal cancers. However, securing an appropriate field of view and a narrow operating space during TOVS or ELPS are critical issues to be resolved for these surgeries. The clinical significance and safety of transoral robotic surgery (TORS) using the da Vinci Surgical System have been widely reported to provide surgeons with increased visualization and magnification, resulting in precise surgical margins and rapid functional recovery. In this context, a multi-institutional clinical study was conducted to evaluate the treatment outcomes of TORS for the treatment of laryngopharyngeal cancer in Japan, and the da Vinci Surgical System for oral robot-assisted surgery for these diseases was approved by the Pharmaceutical Affairs Agency in August 2018. This review provides an overview of the therapeutic effects of TOVS, ELPS, and TORS, with a particular focus on these therapeutic results in Japan.

Force sensing in robot-assisted keyhole endoscopy: A systematic survey

Instrument–tissue interaction forces in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) provide valuable information that can be used to provide haptic perception, monitor tissue trauma, develop training guidelines, and evaluate the skill level of novice and expert surgeons. Force and tactile sensing is lost in many robot-assisted surgery (RAS) systems. Therefore, many researchers have focused on recovering this information through sensing systems and estimation algorithms. This article provides a comprehensive systematic review of the current force sensing research aimed at RAS and, more generally, keyhole endoscopy, in which instruments enter the body through small incisions. Articles published between January 2011 and May 2020 are considered, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The literature search resulted in 110 papers on different force estimation algorithms and sensing technologies, sensor design specifications, and fabrication techniques.

Studying Brain Activation during Skill Acquisition via Robot-Assisted Surgery Training.

Robot-assisted surgery systems are a recent breakthrough in minimally invasive surgeries, offering numerous benefits to both patients and surgeons including, but not limited to, greater visualization of the operation site, greater precision during operation and shorter hospitalization times. Training on robot-assisted surgery (RAS) systems begins with the use of high-fidelity simulators. Hence, the increasing demand of employing RAS systems has led to a rise in using RAS simulators to train medical doctors. The aim of this study was to investigate the brain activity changes elicited during the skill acquisition of resident surgeons by measuring hemodynamic changes from the prefrontal cortex area via a neuroimaging sensor, namely, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Twenty-four participants, who are resident medical doctors affiliated with different surgery departments, underwent an RAS simulator training during this study and completed the sponge suturing tasks at three different difficulty levels in two consecutive sessions/blocks. The results reveal that cortical oxygenation changes in the prefrontal cortex were significantly lower during the second training session (Block 2) compared to the initial training session (Block 1) (p < 0.05).

DeRASI-German situation of robotic-assisted surgery-an online survey

HintergrundDie robotische Assistenz hat sich in der Chirurgie etabliert, ist aber noch kein Standard. Der aktuelle Stand der klinischen Verbreitung in Deutschland ist weiter unklar. Industrieunabhängige Quellen sind rar.Ziel der ArbeitZiel dieser Umfrage ist es, den aktuellen Stand der robotisch assistierten Chirurgie (RAS) fachübergreifend in Deutschland im Zeitraum von 2014 bis 2018 zu untersuchen.Materialien und MethodenMit einer Internetrecherche wurden Krankenhäuser (KH) und Fachabteilungen (FA) mit Zugang zur RAS identifiziert. Die FA wurden aufgefordert, ihre Daten aus den Jahren 2014 bis 2018 zu teilen. Neben klinischen Daten wurden Daten zu Nutzung, Implementierung, Training und Finanzierung abgefragt.ErgebnisseAm 31.12.2018 wurde die RAS an 121 KH in Deutschland angeboten. 383 FA mit Zugang zur RAS wurden identifiziert. 26 % (n = 98) der FA haben geantwortet. Im Mittel verfügte jede FA über zwei Konsolenchirurgen. 10 % der KH verfügten über mehr als 1 RAS-System. 100 % der erfassten RAS-Systeme stammten von der Firma Intuitive Surgical Inc., CA, USA. Die RAS wurde zu 65 % in der Urologie implementiert, zu 12 % in der Viszeralchirurgie (VC). 21 % der Programme erfolgten interdisziplinär und 4 % multidisziplinär (> 3). 83 % der Systeme wurden gekauft, 17 % anderweitig finanziert. Bei den Operationsmehrkosten gaben 74 % der Kliniken an, diese selbst zu tragen. 14 % wählten eine Umlage. Seit 2014 steigerten sich die Eingriffe um den Faktor 4 auf ca. 8000. Der Anteil der VC steigerte sich um das Fünffache seit 2016.SchlussfolgerungDie RAS erlebte in Deutschland bis 2018 ein starkes Wachstum. Das Eingriffsspektrum entspricht dem der Laparoskopie. Bei aktuell fehlender Kostenerstattung für den technischen Mehraufwand, wird die RAS überwiegend im mittel- und hochkomplexen Bereich eingesetzt. Der Online-Survey ist eine gute Methode, ohne hohen administrativen Aufwand unabhängige Daten zu erheben.

Initial Experience with the NAVIO Robotic-Assisted Total Knee Replacement-Coronal Alignment Accuracy and the Learning Curve.

One of the primary aim of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is restoration of the mechanical axis of the lower limb. Maintenance of the mechanical axis within 3 degrees of neutral has been shown to result in improved clinical results and implant longevity. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of this robotic-assisted system in coronal plane component positioning in TKA. We also describe the learning curve associated with adoption of this technology. A total of 72 total knee replacements were completed between November 2017 and September 2018 by a single surgeon using the robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) system. Cases were recorded from the time the study surgeon first adopted this technology and represent the "learning curve." Pre- and postoperative coronal weight-bearing alignments were measured and intraoperative robotic-assisted registration data and duration of use were collected. Of the 72 TKAs in this series, 93.3% were corrected to the desired alignment of within 3 degrees of neutral. The knees that were not corrected to neutral had a mean preoperative alignment of 11.57 degrees of deformity as compared with 4.29 degrees for those that were corrected to neutral. A learning curve effect during adoption of this new technology was not found when analyzing RAS usage time. The RAS system produced accurate coronal alignment in TKA in more than 93% of cases with no learning curve effect. Our study suggests that this system is easily adopted, safe, and accurate.

Application of Robot Positioning for Cannulated Screw Internal Fixation in the Treatment of Femoral Neck Fracture: Retrospective Study.

BackgroundFemoral neck fracture is a common type of hip fracture. Conventional surgical treatment aims at fixing the fracture site with screws and then gradually promoting bone healing. A robot-assisted orthopedic surgery system is computer technology applied to surgical treatment.ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore the therapeutic effect and prognostic value of percutaneous cannulated screw internal fixation using robot-assisted positioning in patients with femoral neck fractures.MethodsFrom July 2018 to September 2019, 42 cases of femoral neck fracture admitted to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Luohe Medical College were randomly and averagely divided into control and study groups. The patients in the control group were treated with conventional percutaneous cannulated screw internal fixation, while the patients in the study group were treated with robot-assisted percutaneous cannulated screw fixation during surgical treatment. We compared the treatment conditions and results of the operation between the 2 groups. The Harris score was used to evaluate the treatment efficacy. The state of fracture healing was followed up and compared between the 2 groups.ResultsThe duration of the operation was shorter, there was less fluoroscopy use, and there were fewer drilled holes in the study group than in the control group (all, P<.001). There was no statistical difference in the amount of intraoperative bleeding between the 2 groups (P=.33). The Harris score (P=.045) and number of excellent and good ratings (P=.01) were significantly higher in the study group than in the control group. The difference in the fracture healing rate between the 2 groups was not statistically significant (P=.23). The fracture healing duration of the study group was shorter than that of the control group (P=.001).ConclusionsThe use of robotic positioning aids in the treatment of femoral neck fractures with percutaneous cannulated screw fixation can effectively improve the efficiency of surgery, shorten the duration of surgery, and reduce the radiation damage to patients. Meanwhile, it improves postoperative treatment and recovery rates of the patients and shortens the fracture healing time.

Human–Robot Interfaces of the NeuRoboScope: A Minimally Invasive Endoscopic Pituitary Tumor Surgery Robotic Assistance System

Abstract Endoscopic endonasal surgery is a commonly practiced minimally invasive neurosurgical operation for the treatment of a wide range of skull base pathologies including pituitary tumors. A common shortcoming of this surgery is the necessity of a third hand when the endoscope has to be handled to allow active use of both hands of the main surgeon. The robot surgery assistant NeuRoboScope system has been developed to take over the endoscope from the main surgeon's hand while providing the surgeon with the necessary means of controlling the location and direction of the endoscope. One of the main novelties of the NeuRoboScope system is its human–robot interface designs which regulate and facilitate the interaction between the surgeon and the robot assistant. The human–robot interaction design of the NeuRoboScope system is investigated in two domains: direct physical interaction (DPI) and master–slave teleoperation (MST). The user study indicating the learning curve and ease of use of the MST is given and this paper is concluded via providing the reader with an outlook of possible new human–robot interfaces for the robot assisted surgery systems.

Design of Insertion Mechanism with Friction Wheels for Cannula Flexible Needle Based on TRIZ

Background: Flexible needle insertion is one of the minimally invasive surgeries, which takes advantage of the lateral force acted on the bevel tip to make the needle shaft bend when inserted into the tissue. The bending makes the needle avoid the obstacles (like bones, veins, nerves, etc.) in order to reach the target. However, the traditional flexible needle neither can change its curvature of the path, nor can realize a precise control because of the torsional friction between the needle and the tissue. Hence, a cannula flexible needle was proposed to overcome the drawbacks, which consists of a cannula and a stylet. Also, there is a need of an insertion mechanism for the cannula flexible needle in robot-assisted surgery. Objective: The aim of this paper is to innovatively design an insertion mechanism with friction wheels for the cannula flexible needle, which is used as an end-effector in robot-assisted surgery system. The mechanism is supposed to realize the coordinated driving of the cannula and the stylet in order to achieve variable curvatures of paths. Methods: Making references of the patents and research papers on needle insertion mechanisms, and based on the requirement of degree of freedom for the cannula flexible needle insertion, the insertion mechanism for the cannula flexible needle is designed by using the TRIZ theory. The conflicts matrix analysis, the invention principles and the substance-field analysis are used to innovatively design the driving scheme and the synchronous motion mechanism. Results and Conclusion: In this paper, the concrete structure design of the insertion mechanism for the cannula flexible needle is achieved, which is compact and simple. The friction coefficient between the needle and the wheels, and the pretightening force between both wheels are calculated through the data from experiments. The insertion accuracy of friction wheel mechanism is tested and analyzed through experimentation. The results show that the maximum placement error of the needle executed by the insertion mechanism is less than 0.5 mm, which meets the demands of surgical operations.

Human-robot interaction control of a haptic master manipulator used in laparoscopic minimally invasive surgical robot system

As an interface for physical human-robot interaction (pHRI), the master manipulator of robot-assisted surgery system is critical to the success rate of surgical procedures. In this paper, a pHRI control scheme of the haptic master manipulator used in laparoscopic surgical robots is presented for enhancing the precision and comfort of operations. Firstly, the inverse dynamic equations of the master manipulator are derived and a modified friction model is proposed to improve the accuracy of friction torque calculation. Then a torque observer based on generalized momentum is designed. The proposed observer can precisely track the joint driving torque needed by the motion state and comply with the operator's intentions. Thirdly, the compensator based on time-delay neural network (TDNN) is proposed to improve the performance of pHRI. Finally, the pHRI control strategy which can adjust the degree of operation compliance actively is introduced. The results of theoretical analysis and comparative experiments indicate that the proposed strategy can substantially reduce the force and torque applied to surgeons by the master manipulator during the operation.

A Compact Surgical Robot System for Craniomaxillofacial Surgery and its Preliminary Study.

Craniomaxillofacial surgery has the characteristics of complex anatomical structure, narrow surgical field, and easy damage to nerves, blood vessels, and other structures. Compared with the traditional bare-hand operation, robot-assisted craniofacial surgery is expected to achieve a more stable and accurate surgical operation. So we have developed a robot-assisted craniofacial surgery system. A compact mechanism design was adopted for the robot system, integrates with visual and force perception modules. The motion analysis and working space analysis are carried out on the mechanical structure. The binocular vision module is integrated and the robot hand-eye calibration process was completed. The target tracking method based on staple is used to achieve tracking and monitoring of the target area. A distributed robot control system based on CAN bus technology is designed, and a position-based visual servo control method is adopted. Then the precision test of the robot system prototype and the drilling experiment of the 3D printed mandible model were carried out. The average pixel error of the vision module is 0.15 pixels. Based on the staple tracking method, the average center error rate of the image is 0.3175 mm, and the overlap rate is 88.76%. The drilling experiment of the mandible model showed that the average entrance position error is 1.76 ± 0.36 mm, the average target position error is 1.62 ± 0.27 mm, and the angle error is 5.36 ± 0.31 degrees. The designed craniofacial robot system can better assist surgeons to complete the mandibular osteotomy.

Telemanipulation of an Articulated Robotic Arm using a Commercial Virtual Reality Controller

Abstract Access to systems for robot-assisted surgery is limited due to high costs. To enable widespread use, numerous issues have to be addressed to improve and/or simplify their components. Current systems commonly use universal linkage-based input devices, and only a few applicationoriented and specialized designs are used. A versatile virtual reality controller is proposed as an alternative input device for the control of a seven degree of freedom articulated robotic arm. The real-time capabilities of the setup, replicating a system for robot-assisted teleoperated surgery, are investigated to assess suitability. Image-based assessment showed a considerable system latency of 81.7 ± 27.7 ms. However, due to its versatility, the virtual reality controller is a promising alternative to current input devices for research around medical telemanipulation systems.

Laparoscopic Robotic Surgery: Current Perspective and Future Directions

Just as laparoscopic surgery provided a giant leap in safety and recovery for patients over open surgery methods, robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) is doing the same to laparoscopic surgery. The first laparoscopic-RAS systems to be commercialized were the Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA, USA) da Vinci and the Computer Motion Zeus. These systems were similar in many aspects, which led to a patent dispute between the two companies. Before the dispute was settled in court, Intuitive Surgical bought Computer Motion, and thus owned critical patents for laparoscopic-RAS. Recently, the patents held by Intuitive Surgical have begun to expire, leading to many new laparoscopic-RAS systems being developed and entering the market. In this study, we review the newly commercialized and prototype laparoscopic-RAS systems. We compare the features of the imaging and display technology, surgeons console and patient cart of the reviewed RAS systems. We also briefly discuss the future directions of laparoscopic-RAS surgery. With new laparoscopic-RAS systems now commercially available we should see RAS being adopted more widely in surgical interventions and costs of procedures using RAS to decrease in the near future.

High-Precision Visual-Tracking using the IMM Algorithm and Discrete GPI Observers (IMM-DGPIO)

In this work, we propose the integration of a bank of Discrete Generalized Proportional Integral Observers (DGPIO) within an Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) structure in order to improve the precision of visual-tracking tasks. Applications such as visual servoing, robotic assisted surgery and optronic weapon systems require accurate and high-precision measurements provided by real-time visual-tracking systems. In this case, the DGPIO-Bank was designed using two kinematic models based in constant velocity (CV) and constant acceleration (CA) motion profiles. The main feature of the DGPIO-Bank is the active disturbance rejection (ADR) feature which reduces noise in the position signal of a moving object. The resultant algorithm uses a fusion of four important features: state interaction, Kalman filtering, active disturbance rejection and multiple models combination. For performance comparison, we evaluated our proposed IMM-DGPIO algorithm and other state of the art IMM algorithms. Experimental results show that our proposed strategy had the best performance.

Augmented Reality for Robotics: A Review

Augmented reality (AR) is used to enhance the perception of the real world by integrating virtual objects to an image sequence acquired from various camera technologies. Numerous AR applications in robotics have been developed in recent years. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of AR research in robotics during the five year period from 2015 to 2019. We classified these works in terms of application areas into four categories: (1) Medical robotics: Robot-Assisted surgery (RAS), prosthetics, rehabilitation, and training systems; (2) Motion planning and control: trajectory generation, robot programming, simulation, and manipulation; (3) Human-robot interaction (HRI): teleoperation, collaborative interfaces, wearable robots, haptic interfaces, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), and gaming; (4) Multi-agent systems: use of visual feedback to remotely control drones, robot swarms, and robots with shared workspace. Recent developments in AR technology are discussed followed by the challenges met in AR due to issues of camera localization, environment mapping, and registration. We explore AR applications in terms of how AR was integrated and which improvements it introduced to corresponding fields of robotics. In addition, we summarize the major limitations of the presented applications in each category. Finally, we conclude our review with future directions of AR research in robotics. The survey covers over 100 research works published over the last five years.