Telesurgery Research Articles

REGULASI PENGGUNAAN TEKNOLOGI ROBOTIK TELESURGERY DALAM PRAKTIK KEDOKTERAN

Technological developments in Indonesia are very rapid, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. The existence of artificial intelligence also has a major influence in the field of medical services. One form of service using remote robotic surgical technology is telesurgery. Telesurgery is a surgical operation that is perfomed remotely and this service is currently popular. In general, the regulation of telesurgery practice refers to Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 29 of 2004 concerning Medical Practice and Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health. Currently, Indonesia still does not have specific laws and regulations that regulate the practice of medical services using remote surgical methods. Because the practice of telesurgery in Indonesian has not been clearly regulated, it can be concluded that there are still problems in the use of telesurgery. Therefore, this research will discuss and analyze reguulations related to the use of robotic remote surgery technology. This research uses conventional legal methods and is based on a statutory and conceptual approach, then provides an analysis of the form of regulation for the use of telesurgical technology using robots in medical practice.

Impairment‐aware resource allocation scheme for elastic optical networks with different service priorities

AbstractToday, elastic optical networks (EONs) are required to accommodate traffic with different service priorities. For example, mission‐critical applications such as industrial internet, smart grids, and remote surgery require an ultra‐reliable low‐latency communication system. The novel impairment‐aware resource allocation scheme proposed here prioritises traffic. It satisfies the quality and latency requirements of mission‐critical traffic while causing minimum disruptions to other forms of low‐priority traffic connections. The results obtained for 6‐node and 14‐node networks under various traffic distribution environments indicate that the proposed algorithm achieves higher spectral efficiency, reduces spectrum fragmentation, and causes minimal disruptions over the benchmark algorithm.

Advancements in robotic surgery: innovations, challenges and future prospects.

The use of robots has revolutionized healthcare, wherein further innovations have led to improved precision and accuracy. Conceived in the late 1960s, robot-assisted surgeries have evolved to become an integral part of various surgical specialties. Modern robotic surgical systems are equipped with highly dexterous arms and miniaturized instruments that reduce tremors and enable delicate maneuvers. Implementation of advanced materials and designs along with the integration of imaging and visualization technologies have enhanced surgical accuracy and made robots safer and more adaptable to various procedures. Further, the haptic feedback system allows surgeons to determine the consistency of the tissues they are operating upon, without physical contact, thereby preventing injuries due to the application of excess force. With the implementation of teleoperation, surgeons can now overcome geographical limitations and provide specialized healthcare remotely. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) aids in surgical decision-making by improving the recognition of minute and complex anatomical structures. All these advancements have led to faster recovery and fewer complications in patients. However, the substantial cost of robotic systems, their maintenance, the size of the systems and proper surgeon training pose major challenges. Nevertheless, with future advancements such as AI-driven automation, nanorobots, microscopic incision surgeries, semi-automated telerobotic systems, and the impact of 5G connectivity on remote surgery, the growth curve of robotic surgery points to innovation and stands as a testament to the persistent pursuit of progress in healthcare.

The role of robotics in medical science: Advancements, applications, and future directions

<p>This paper explores the role of robotics in medical science, focusing on advancements, applications, and future directions. The rapid evolution of robotics has revolutionized healthcare, particularly in surgical procedures, rehabilitation, and diagnostics. Advancements such as minimally invasive surgery and robot-assisted surgery have improved surgical outcomes by providing enhanced precision and visualization. Tele-robotics enables remote surgeries, bringing specialized care to underserved areas. The integration of AI with robotics has led to the development of intelligent systems capable of analyzing medical data and assisting in decision-making. Robotics finds applications in various domains, including surgery, rehabilitation, diagnosis, imaging, and prosthetics. The future of robotics in medical science holds promising prospects, including nanorobotics, robotic drug delivery, healthcare automation, and human-robot collaboration. Challenges remain, such as ensuring safety and reliability, addressing ethical concerns, and making these technologies accessible. As researchers continue to push boundaries, robotics in medical science is poised to bring significant advancements, improving patient care and outcomes.<strong></strong></p>

Evaluating the Effects of Pulsed Electrical Stimulation on the Mechanical Behavior and Microstructure of Medulla Oblongata Tissues.

The development of remote surgery hinges on comprehending the mechanical properties of the tissue at the surgical site. Understanding the mechanical behavior of the medulla oblongata tissue is instrumental for precisely determining the remote surgery implementation site. Additionally, exploring this tissue's response under electric fields can inform the creation of electrical stimulation therapy regimens. This could potentially reduce the extent of medulla oblongata tissue damage from mechanical compression. Various types of pulsed electric fields were integrated into a custom-built indentation device for this study. Experimental findings suggested that applying pulsed electric fields amplified the shear modulus of the medulla oblongata tissue. In the electric field, the elasticity and viscosity of the tissue increased. The most significant influence was noted from the low-frequency pulsed electric field, while the burst pulsed electric field had a minimal impact. At the microstructural scale, the application of an electric field led to the concentration of myelin in areas distant from the surface layer in the medulla oblongata, and the orderly structure of proteoglycans became disordered. The alterations observed in the myelin and proteoglycans under an electric field were considered to be the fundamental causes of the changes in the mechanical behavior of the medulla oblongata tissue. Moreover, cell polarization and extracellular matrix cavitation were observed, with transmission electron microscopy results pointing to laminar separation within the myelin at the ultrastructure scale. This study thoroughly explored the impact of electric field application on the mechanical behavior and microstructure of the medulla oblongata tissue, delving into the underlying mechanisms. This investigation delved into the changes and mechanisms in the mechanical behavior and microstructure of medulla oblongata tissue under the influence of electric fields. Furthermore, this study could serve as a reference for the development of electrical stimulation regimens in the central nervous system. The acquired mechanical behavior data could provide valuable baseline information to aid in the evolution of remote surgery techniques involving the medulla oblongata tissue.

Engineering knowledge for medical applications

This paper describes and discusses the engineering knowledge, mainly production engineering knowledge, which is expected to be used for surgical support systems in the near future and beyond. With regard to artificial joint replacement, the paper discusses bone resection characteristics, focusing on the experimental results of cutting force and temperature rise. In addition, registration techniques, and measurement and resection accuracy are described. In the area of microsurgery, neurosurgery and ophthalmology are covered, and the introduction of AI is also introduced. In ophthalmology, the automation of peeling procedures is discussed. In remote surgery, experimental results on the relationship between force feedback and time delay, which is a crucial problem in remote surgery, are introduced. Furthermore, as future surgical support systems, the application of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) and the use of microrobots are discussed. Finally, this paper describes the situations in which surgical robots are expected to play an active role.

Dynamic Periodic Event-Triggered Control for Networked Control Systems Under Packet Dropouts

This article presents a co-design method of dynamic periodic event-triggering mechanism (DPETM) and output-based control law for networked control systems (NCSs) subject to inevitable imperfections such as limited network resources, exogenous disturbances and successive packet dropouts. The developed DPETM has the potential to make full use of scarce network resources compared to the periodic sampled-data control on the one hand, and is natural for practical digital platforms instead of a discretized version of continuous event-triggered control (CETC) one the other hand. In this paper, the whole closed-loop system is modeled a unified hybrid system by incorporating bilateral DPETM, successive packet dropouts effects and external disturbances, and an improved hybrid Lyapunov function is constructed for stability analysis. Based on the hybrid framework, some sufficient conditions are presented to guarantee <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal{L}_2$</tex-math> </inline-formula> -stability of the system while tolerating a maximum allowable number of successive packet dropouts (MANSD). Furthermore, new linear matrix inequality (LMI) conditions for co-design of control law and triggering strategy are derived by introducing some constraints with the free variables and a modified Young’s inequality. In addition, this paper considers two scenarios relating to whether an acknowledgment scheme is employed or not. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by two illustrated examples and comparative studies. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Note to Practitioners</i> —With the increasing requirement for reducing unnecessary waste of communication resources in modern industries, it is necessary to consider an alternative paradigm of the time-triggered control. In many digital control applications such as smart power grid, vehicle and remote surgery, the control tasks are often executed periodically, which makes it difficult for the theoretical results of CETC to be directly applied to practical digital platforms. The DPETM proposed in this paper, which only verifies the triggering conditions periodically at each sampling instant, is more suitable for practical digital platforms such as time-sliced embedded architectures compared to CETC. This paper investigates the stability problem for NCSs with DPETM subject to packet dropouts. Different from most of the existing literature on randomness of packet loss, this paper focuses on impact of the continuity of packet dropouts on system performance. Based on the hybrid framework and the Lyapunov approach, a co-design methodology of triggering condition and control law is proposed to ensure that the system satisfies the desired performance and can admit a MANSD.

Innovative Architectures and Management Strategies in 5G Communication Networks

The evolution of communication networks has witnessed a remarkable transformation with the advent of 5G technology. As the latest generation of cellular networks, 5G promises to revolutionize the way we connect, communicate, and interact with the digital world. This paper explores the architecture, management, and implications of 5G communication networks, shedding light on the key features, challenges, and opportunities presented by this transformative technology. At the core of 5G networks lies a sophisticated architecture designed to deliver unprecedented levels of speed, reliability, and connectivity. The 5G New Radio (NR) architecture encompasses three primary components: the User Equipment (UE), the Radio Access Network (RAN), and the Core Network (CN). These components work in tandem to facilitate seamless communication between user devices and the broader network infrastructure. One of the defining features of 5G networks is their ability to support significantly higher data speeds and lower latency compared to previous generations. With the potential to deliver data rates of several gigabits per second and latency as low as a few milliseconds, 5G opens the door to a plethora of innovative applications and services, ranging from immersive virtual reality experiences to real-time remote surgeries. Effective management of 5G networks is paramount to ensuring optimal performance, reliability, and security. Network management systems employ advanced algorithms for dynamic resource allocation, quality of service (QoS) optimization, and network slicing. Network slicing, in particular, enables operators to create virtual networks tailored to specific use cases, such as enhanced mobile broadband, massive IoT deployments, and mission-critical communications. However, the deployment and management of 5G networks pose several challenges and considerations. Infrastructure deployment requires substantial investment and coordination, while ensuring interoperability between different vendors' equipment and standards remains a pressing issue. Spectrum availability and allocation also play a critical role in determining the performance and capacity of 5G networks, necessitating careful regulatory oversight and spectrum management strategies. Despite these challenges, the implications of 5G technology are far-reaching and profound. From empowering smart cities and autonomous vehicles to enabling the widespread adoption of IoT devices and applications, 5G networks have the potential to reshape industries, drive innovation, and enhance the quality of life for billions of people around the world. 5G communication networks represent a paradigm shift in the way we connect and communicate. With their advanced architecture, dynamic management capabilities, and transformative potential, 5G networks are poised to unlock new opportunities, accelerate digital transformation, and usher in a new era of connectivity and innovation.

Innovative Architectures and Management Strategies in 5G Communication Networks

The evolution of communication networks has witnessed a remarkable transformation with the advent of 5G technology. As the latest generation of cellular networks, 5G promises to revolutionize the way we connect, communicate, and interact with the digital world. This paper explores the architecture, management, and implications of 5G communication networks, shedding light on the key features, challenges, and opportunities presented by this transformative technology. At the core of 5G networks lies a sophisticated architecture designed to deliver unprecedented levels of speed, reliability, and connectivity. The 5G New Radio (NR) architecture encompasses three primary components: the User Equipment (UE), the Radio Access Network (RAN), and the Core Network (CN). These components work in tandem to facilitate seamless communication between user devices and the broader network infrastructure. One of the defining features of 5G networks is their ability to support significantly higher data speeds and lower latency compared to previous generations. With the potential to deliver data rates of several gigabits per second and latency as low as a few milliseconds, 5G opens the door to a plethora of innovative applications and services, ranging from immersive virtual reality experiences to real-time remote surgeries. Effective management of 5G networks is paramount to ensuring optimal performance, reliability, and security. Network management systems employ advanced algorithms for dynamic resource allocation, quality of service (QoS) optimization, and network slicing. Network slicing, in particular, enables operators to create virtual networks tailored to specific use cases, such as enhanced mobile broadband, massive IoT deployments, and mission-critical communications. However, the deployment and management of 5G networks pose several challenges and considerations. Infrastructure deployment requires substantial investment and coordination, while ensuring interoperability between different vendors' equipment and standards remains a pressing issue. Spectrum availability and allocation also play a critical role in determining the performance and capacity of 5G networks, necessitating careful regulatory oversight and spectrum management strategies. Despite these challenges, the implications of 5G technology are far-reaching and profound. From empowering smart cities and autonomous vehicles to enabling the widespread adoption of IoT devices and applications, 5G networks have the potential to reshape industries, drive innovation, and enhance the quality of life for billions of people around the world. 5G communication networks represent a paradigm shift in the way we connect and communicate. With their advanced architecture, dynamic management capabilities, and transformative potential, 5G networks are poised to unlock new opportunities, accelerate digital transformation, and usher in a new era of connectivity and innovation.

Service Function Chain Scheduling Under the Multi-Cloud Collaborative Service of Information Networks Used for Cross-Domain Remote Surgery

Service Function Chain Scheduling Under the Multi-Cloud Collaborative Service of Information Networks Used for Cross-Domain Remote Surgery

Multi-silicone bilateral soft physical twin as an alternative to traditional user interfaces for remote palpation: a comparative study

Teleoperated medical technologies are a fundamental part of the healthcare system. From telemedicine to remote surgery, they allow remote diagnosis and treatment. However, the absence of any interface able to effectively reproduce the sense of touch and interaction with the patient prevents the implementation of teleoperated systems for primary care examinations, such as palpation. In this paper, we propose the first reported case of a soft robotic bilateral physical twin for remote palpation. By creating an entirely soft interface that can be used both to control the robot and receive feedback, the proposed device allows the user to achieve remote palpation by simply palpating the soft physical twin. This is achieved through a compact design showcasing 9 pneumatic chambers and exploiting multi-silicone casting to minimize cross-noise and allow teleoperation. A comparative study has been run against a traditional setup, and both the control and feedback of the physical twin are carefully analyzed. Despite distributed tactile feedback not achieving the same performance as the visual map, the soft control and visual feedback combination showcases a 5.1% higher accuracy. Moreover, the bilateral soft physical twin results always in a less invasive procedure, with 41% lower mechanical work exchanged with the remote phantom.

Effects of communication delay in the dual cockpit remote robotic surgery system

PurposeTo evaluate the impact of dual cockpit telesurgery on proctors and operators, and acceptable levels of processing delay for video compression and restoration.MethodsEight medical advisors and eight trainee surgeons, one highly skilled per group, performed gastrectomy, rectal resection, cholecystectomy, and bleeding tasks on pigs. Using the Medicaroid surgical robot hinotori™, simulated delay times (0 ms, 50 ms, 100 ms, 150 ms, and 200 ms) were inserted mid-surgery to evaluate the tolerance level. Operative times and dual cockpit switching times were measured subjectively using 5-point scale questionnaires (mSUS [modified System Usability Scale], and Robot Usability Score).ResultsNo significant difference was observed in operative times between proctors and operators (proctor: p = 0.247, operator: p = 0.608) nor in switching times to the dual cockpit mode (p = 0.248). For each survey setting, proctors tended to give lower ratings to delays of ≥ 150 ms. No marked difference was observed in the operator evaluations. On the postoperative questionnaires, there were no marked differences in the mSUS or Robot Usability Score between the proctors and operators (mSUS: p = 0.779, Robot Usability Score: p = 0.261).ConclusionTelesurgery using a dual cockpit with hinotori™ is practical and has little impact on surgical procedures.

Beyond Virtual Horizons: Navigating the Infinite Metaverse Landscape and Unveiling its Real-World Impact

Abstract: The Metaverse, a digital realm where virtual and physical realities converge, has rapidly evolved from science fiction to a transformative force in our ultramodern world. This comprehensive study delves into the heart of the Metaverse, unravelling its intricate layers, implications and groundbreaking operations. Going beyond the conventional explorations of virtual reality and augmented reality, our exploration uncovers new dimensions and paradigms that will reshape industries and societies. Our investigation begins by dissecting the technological underpinnings of the Metaverse, examining the fusion of blockchain, artificial intelligence, decentralized networks and quantum computing that enable its existence. We unravel the intricacies of digital identity, ownership and privacy within this immersive digital landscape, proposing innovative solutions to the challenges that lie ahead. Furthermore, our study scrutinizes the Metaverse's profound impact on various sectors, similar as education, healthcare, entertainment, finance and commerce. We present pioneering use cases, including medical telepresence for remote surgeries, AI-driven immersive learning environments, unveiling new possibilities.

Integrating Virtual, Mixed, and Augmented Reality into Remote Robotic Applications: A Brief Review of Extended Reality-Enhanced Robotic Systems for Intuitive Telemanipulation and Telemanufacturing Tasks in Hazardous Conditions

There is an increasingly urgent need for humans to interactively control robotic systems to perform increasingly precise remote operations, concomitant with the rapid development of space exploration, deep-sea discovery, nuclear rehabilitation and management, and robotic-assisted medical devices. The potential high value of medical telerobotic applications was also evident during the recent coronavirus pandemic and will grow in future. Robotic teleoperation satisfies the demands of the scenarios in which human access carries measurable risk, but human intelligence is required. An effective teleoperation system not only enables intuitive human-robot interaction (HRI) but ensures the robot can also be operated in a way that allows the operator to experience the “feel” of the robot working on the remote side, gaining a “sense of presence”. Extended reality (XR) technology integrates real-world information with computer-generated graphics and has the potential to enhance the effectiveness and performance of HRI by providing depth perception and enabling judgment and decision making while operating the robot in a dynamic environment. This review examines novel approaches to the development and evaluation of an XR-enhanced telerobotic platform for intuitive remote teleoperation applications in dangerous and difficult working conditions. It presents a strong review of XR-enhanced telerobotics for remote robotic applications; a particular focus of the review includes the use of integrated 2D/3D mixed reality with haptic interfaces to perform intuitive remote operations to remove humans from dangerous conditions. This review also covers primary studies proposing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) solutions where humans can better control or interact with real robotic platforms using these devices and systems to extend the user’s reality and provide a more intuitive interface. The objective of this article is to present recent, relevant, common, and accessible frameworks implemented in research articles published on XR-enhanced telerobotics for industrial applications. Finally, we present and classify the application context of the reviewed articles in two groups: mixed reality–enhanced robotic telemanipulation and mixed reality–enhanced robotic tele-welding. The review thus addresses all elements in the state of the art for these systems and ends with recommended research areas and targets. The application range of these systems and the resulting recommendations is readily extensible to other application areas, such as remote robotic surgery in telemedicine, where surgeons are scarce and need is high, and other potentially high-risk/high-need scenarios.

Evaluation of 5G techniques affecting the deployment of smart hospital infrastructure: Understanding 5G, AI and IoT role in smart hospital

Smart Hospital will play a key role in improving the quality of services (QoS) related to the health sector. In the present scenario, it is impossible to accommodate an ageing population with the current infrastructure and facilities provided by conventional hospitals. However, the integration of technologies with the conventional hospital is enhancing the medical services and also making it easier for the public, who can save time and money by getting all the necessary medical facilities while sitting at home. The deployment of the fifth generation (5G) is taking place all over the world. The 5G network offers a better service that can be used in hospitals to make it a smart health service provider with online facilities such as video monitoring, suggesting a proper medical prescription based on medical data, remote surgery, and so on. High bandwidth, a fast data rate, low latency, and a low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) are some requirements that need to be fulfilled by the 5G radio. In this work, we focus on improving the power savings, spectral access, latency, and Bit error rate (BER) of the advanced 5G waveforms such as non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). In the first part of the article, we proposed a PAPR reduction algorithm to improve the power efficiency of the power amplifier (PA) for 5G waveforms. Several algorithms are applied to the 5G waveforms, and their performances are estimated in terms of PAPR curves. In the second part, we have utilised advanced detection algorithms to improve the signal detection of the 5G waveforms. The simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithms efficiently enhance the throughput of the framework. In the third part, we improve the spectral efficiency of the 5G waveforms by applying spectrum sensing (SS) algorithms. It is seen that the SS methods efficiently reduce the spectrum leakage of the multi-carrier waveforms (MCW). Finally, we examined the role and challenges of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) in smart hospitals. Overall, it is concluded that hospitals can become more effective, cut expenses, and provide better patient care with the aid of AI and IoT. Hospitals can improve patient outcomes and the state of the healthcare system as a whole by utilising these technologies.

An intelligent technique for network resource management and analysis of 5G-IoT smart healthcare application

&lt;p&gt;The transformation of traditional hospitals to a smart healthcare system is a patient-centric, reliable, and smarter way to enhance healthcare facilities for individuals. These healthcare devices are based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and conventional network structures such as 3rd generation (3G) or 4th generation (4G). That did not provide the patient health data in the real-time scenario. Therefore, the integrated 5G-IoT system offers distinct benefits such as remote monitoring, surgery, and real-time data analysis of healthcare system that is operated with slice of dedicated network. It generates huge data with the billions of healthcare equipment that can be evaluated for decision making. This enormous data requires low latency, high-security, capacity, and more reliable techniques for evaluation. In this scenario, network slicing is one of the key solutions that can be considered for isolated end-to-end network structures. Network slicing enables logical and independent network virtual networks to be multiplexed for the same physical network. In this article, we propose an intelligent approach for network resource optimization and analysis of a 5G-IoT based smart healthcare network. We examine the performance of the machine learning algorithm by an automatic model, named A Fast Library for automated machine learning (FLAML). In addition, we perform network slicing to obtain resource optimization in 5G-IoT-based healthcare application.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

How to define the correct guidelines for enhanced telepresence and task embodiment in remote palpation.

Teleoperated robots have been widely accepted in several fields of medical practice, enhancing human abilities and allowing remote operation. However, such technology has not been able yet to permeate areas such as primary care and physical examination. Such applications strongly rely on the quality of the interaction between doctor and patient, and on its multimodal nature. In order to achieve remote physical examination is thus mandatory to have a good doctor-robot interface, but what does good mean? Ultimately, the goal is for the user to achieve task embodiment, making the remote task feel like the in-person one. Several research groups have proposed a wide variety of interfaces, showcasing largely different methods of control and feedback, because of the absence of design guidelines. In this work, we argue that the ideal interface for a remote task should resemble as close as possible the experience provided by the in-person equivalent, keeping in consideration the nature of the target users. To support our claims, we analyze many remote interfaces and compare them with the respective in-person task. This analysis is not limited to the medical sector, with examples such as remote abdominal surgery, but it expands to all forms of teleoperation, up to nuclear waste handling and avionics.

Service Function Chaining to Support Ultra-Low Latency Communication in NFV

Network function virtualization (NFV) has the potential to fundamentally transform conventional network architecture through the decoupling of software from dedicated hardware. The convergence of virtualization and cloud computing technologies has revolutionized the networking landscape, offering a wide range of advantages, including improved flexibility, manageability, and scalability. The importance of network capability in enabling ultra-low latency applications has been greatly amplified in the current era due to the increased demand for emerging services such as autonomous driving, teleoperated driving, virtual reality, and remote surgery. This paper presents a novel and efficient methodology for service function chaining (SFC) in an NFV-enabled network that aims to minimize latency and optimize the utilization of physical network resources, with a specific focus on ultra-low latency applications. In our proposed methodology, we offer flow prioritization and an adjustable priority coefficient factor (µ) to reserve a portion of physical network resources exclusively for ultra-low latency applications in order to optimize the deployment paths of these applications further. We formulate the SFC deployment problem as an integer linear programming (ILP) optimization model. Furthermore, we propose a set of heuristic algorithms that yield near-optimal solutions with minimal optimality gaps and execution times, making them practical for large-scale network topologies. Performance evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed methodology in enabling ultra-low latency applications in an NFV-enabled network. Compared to existing algorithms, our proposed methodology achieves notable enhancements in terms of the end-to-end delay (up to 22 percent), bandwidth utilization (up to 28 percent), and SFC acceptance rate (up to 13 percent).

Holistic Resilience and Reliability Measures for Cellular Telecommunication Networks

Nowadays, our lives have become increasingly inseparable from the services facilitated by telecommunication networks. Disruption of this service may result in a significant detrimental effect, especially in smart manufacturing, remote surgery, and harbor logistic. With the development and deployment of the new generation of telecommunication, i.e., 5G mobile networks, reliability has been repeatedly emphasized as a critical issue. Contemporary telecommunication networks often have a large scale. Evaluating network reliability is a challenging issue related to the spatiotemporal characteristics of the network and of the connection principles. In this paper, we bring together concepts from computational geometry and reliability engineering to forge a new approach to address the challenging issue. We first formulate a Voronoi-based Graphic network (VGN) model with a novel built-in dependence, coverage dependence, that manifests the resilience of the network. Based on the VGN model, we propose two new measures for holistically assessing the resilience and reliability of telecommunication networks in a large region. Ultimately, we employ the designed approach to telecommunication networks. The result indicates that coverage dependence and resilience are important factors for delivering ultra-reliable service to users promised by the 5G.

Lightweight Pneumatically Elastic Backbone Structure with Modular Construction and Nonlinear Interaction for Soft Actuators.

There has been a growing need for soft robots operating various force-sensitive tasks due to their environmental adaptability, satisfactory controllability, and nonlinear mobility unique from rigid robots. It is of desire to further study the system instability and strongly nonlinear interaction phenomenon that are the main influence factors to the actuations of lightweight soft actuators. In this study, we present a design principle on lightweight pneumatically elastic backbone structure (PEBS) with the modular construction for soft actuators, which contains a backbone printed as one piece and a common strip balloon. We build a prototype of a lightweight (<80 g) soft actuator, which can perform bending motions with satisfactory output forces (∼20 times self-weight). Experiments are conducted on the bending effects generated by interactions between the hyperelastic inner balloon and the elastic backbone. We investigated the nonlinear interaction and system instability experimentally, numerically, and parametrically. To overcome them, we further derived a theoretical nonlinear model and a numerical model. Satisfactory agreements are obtained between the numerical, theoretical, and experimental results. The accuracy of the numerical model is fully validated. Parametric studies are conducted on the backbone geometry and stiffness, balloon stiffness, thickness, and diameter. The accurate controllability, operation safety, modularization ability, and collaborative ability of the PEBS are validated by designing PEBS into a soft laryngoscope, a modularized PEBS library for a robotic arm, and a PEBS system that can operate remote surgery. The reported work provides a further applicability potential of soft robotics studies.