Applying software dependability principles to medical robotics

Abstract

Medical robotics is a relatively new branch of robotics and application to safety-critical system development. Traditional approaches to the development of robotic systems no longer suffice as many of the key robot-human safety principles are compromised due to the very nature of the application. It is therefore suggested that safety-critical system techniques be used, in conjunction with quantitative software measurement, in order to sufficiently verify and validate the software against user and safety requirements and systematically demonstrate software safety to regulatory agency requirements. This could also provide useful and early feedback to software engineers on the quality of the software during construction.