The 11th edition of Conference on New Technologies for Computer and Robot Assisted Surgery (CRAS) took place from April 25-27, 2022, at Centro Congressi Federico II in Napoli, Italy. CRAS aims to support and propose concrete measures to accelerate research and innovation in Robotic Surgery, which is a key factor for the introduction of new surgical procedures not feasible otherwise, as well as for improving current procedures by providing new assistive tools that allow achieving more precision and higher surgical performances.

Robotic surgery is one of the most appealing fields of modern robotics. With over 3 decades of history, more than 3.800 systems installed worldwide, and over 600.000 robot-assisted interventions conducted per year, the field of robotic surgery is well-established. Despite these impressive figures and increasing popularity in research labs all over the world, the list of technological advances that made it into the operating room during this last decade remains limited. Long-awaited techniques such as 3D reconstruction, motion compensation, virtual guidance, haptic feedback, understudy in many labs all over the planet did not make their appearance into the market yet. CRAS strives to overcome this status-quo by strengthening the collaboration between the different research groups to boost the efficacy and shorten the development cycle.

In this 11th edition there were communications on advances in the following fields: virtual and augmented reality techniques applied to training, planning, and assisted guidance; new techniques to introduce effective haptic feedback; new devices, technologies, and procedures for less invasive surgery and to facilitate the execution of complex surgical tasks; and artificial intelligence for planning, guidance, and autonomous operations. CRAS events had a record number of registrations (+100), 5 Keynotes from scientists with different backgrounds, 31 oral presentations, 40 poster presentations and 8 regular sessions. 

 “The greatest satisfaction was to see the massive presence of young researchers who followed all the activities of the conference with great interest and active participation”

Said the co-organizer of the event, Fanny Ficuciello.