RobotHandleS

RobotHandleS is a research and innovation project aimed at developing intelligent robotic solutions for the automated handling of reusable surgical equipment (RSE) in hospital sterile processing departments. The project addresses a critical and labour-intensive part of the peri-surgical cycle, where surgical instruments must be cleaned, inspected, identified, sorted, and prepared for reuse while maintaining the highest standards of patient safety.

Building upon RetramS’ Scanner ID technology and NEC’s Fingerprint of Things (FoT) identification method, RobotHandleS seeks to create an integrated AI-driven robotic system capable of identifying, grasping, handling, and organizing surgical instruments in realistic hospital environments. Unlike conventional approaches that rely on tags, barcodes, RFID markers, or structured workspaces, the proposed solution enables marker-less identification and robotic handling of overlapping instruments in cluttered settings.

The project combines expertise in robotic perception, computer vision, machine learning, grasping, and healthcare automation to improve efficiency, reduce human errors, and enhance workplace safety. By automating repetitive and demanding manual tasks, RobotHandleS aims to increase the reliability of surgical instrument processing while allowing healthcare personnel to focus on more critical patient-related activities.

RobotHandleS is a collaborative effort involving industry, healthcare, and academic partners, including Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), RetramS AS, Inventas AS, Omron Norge AS, NEC Corporation, Helse Førde, and Helse Bergen.

HVL's Contribution
HVL contributes to RobotHandleS through research on robotic grasping of reusable surgical instruments. The work focuses on developing perception-driven methods for learning robust grasp poses and designing specialized gripper fingers for handling thin, reflective, and sharp surgical instruments. The developed solutions are evaluated on a real robotic platform, supporting the development of reliable and efficient robotic systems for healthcare automation.