Dentronics: Review, First Concepts and Pilot Study of a New Application Domain for Collaborative Robots in Dental Assistance

In this paper we introduce dentronics as a new emerging application domain for collaborative lightweight robots in the dental context backed up by a user survey supporting the clear need. Specifically, we developed a multi-modal interaction framework, applied this framework to a specific dental use-case, and conducted a preliminary user-study for evaluation. Our results demonstrate usability and feasibility beyond a controlled experimental setup. We conclude that dentronics is indeed within reach given today's technology and deserves further investigation towards clinical use.