The Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) was founded in 1831 and currently comprises 9 faculties with approximately 21000 students and over 1600 scientific and academic staff members. Having coordinated/ participated in over 60 successful EU projects in FP6 and currently 37 projects in FP7, the LUH has extensive experience in the implementation of EU funded research- and networking projects. The Institute of Mechatronic Systems (imes; former name: Institute of Robotics) at the LUH has a long tradition in both mechatronic systems engineering (e.g. simulation, control, sensors, prototyping) and medical robotics. The imes has strong links to clinical partners including the department of otolaryngology (head: Prof. Lenarz) of the Medical School of Hanover focusing on the development of minimally invasive surgery techniques.

Organizations:

• Institute of Mechatronic Systems

Main tasks:

• Leader of WP7 – Endoscopic Systems Design
• Leader of WP9 – Augmented Reality System

Role of the Partner:

As the leader of WP7 and WP9, LUH will be responsible for major technological developments. Furthermore, LUH will contribute significantly to medical imaging/pre-op planning, system integration and evaluation/testing. Thus, LUH will be deeply involved in the medical technology aspects of this joint research project. In addition, the µRALP consortium will benefit from the long expertise of LUH with medical projects bringing surgery and engineering together.

Key researchers:

Tobias ORTMAIER is the head of the Institute of Mechatronic Systems (imes) at the LUH, being nominated in 2008. Within the µRALP project he is responsible for the project management at LUH and for the supervision and guidance of the research activities at LUH. His level of involvement in the project is about 20% of his working hours (i.e. 1 day per week). His field of expertise relevant for this project is: management of large scale projects in both academia and industry, real-time image processing and multi-modal image registration, human-factor analysis for tele-surgery, and development of mechatronic assistance devices for surgical applications (including the hands-on KineMedic robot, 1st price of the EURON Technology Transfer Award in 2007). Further details about the research activities at imes can be found at IMES.