Miguel L. Franco
University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA Medical Center, Universidad de Zaragoza
Papers
9
Total Citations
579
H-Index
7
About
Miguel L. Franco is a biomedical engineer and robotics researcher whose work has significantly advanced the field of haptic feedback in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. His most impactful contributions center on restoring the sense of touch to surgeons operating robotic systems — a critical limitation of platforms like the da Vinci surgical robot, which traditionally deprive surgeons of tactile and force information during tissue manipulation. Franco's most celebrated work, "Tactile Feedback Induces Reduced Grasping Force in Robot-Assisted Surgery" (2009, 218 citations), demonstrated that restoring tactile sensation measurably improves surgical safety by reducing excessive tissue grasping forces. Complementing this, he developed and refined pneumatic balloon actuator arrays and multi-element tactile display systems capable of translating real-time force distribution data from robotic end-effectors directly to the surgeon's fingertips, achieving human perception detection accuracies exceeding 96%. These innovations, documented across seven highly cited publications from 2008–2009, collectively garnered over 570 citations, establishing Franco as a pioneering voice in surgical haptics. His research bridges materials engineering, human perception, and surgical robotics, offering tangible pathways to safer, more intuitive minimally invasive procedures. Later work also touches on autonomous robotics in broader applied contexts.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Tactile Feedback Induces Reduced Grasping Force in Robot-Assisted Surgery218 citations · 2009
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- 4Pneumatic balloon actuators for tactile feedback in robotic surgery72 citations · 2008
- 5
- 6A tactile feedback system for robotic surgery36 citations · 2008
- 7An integrated pneumatic tactile feedback actuator array for robotic surgery26 citations · 2008
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- 9Integrating an Autonomous Robot on a Dance and New Technologies Festival3 citations · 2017