Luis G. Torres

About

Luis G. Torres is a pioneering researcher in medical robotics, with a primary focus on concentric tube robots and motion planning for minimally invasive surgical systems. His work sits at the intersection of robot mechanics, surgical automation, and clinical application, addressing some of the most technically demanding challenges in modern medical robotics. Torres has made foundational contributions to the design, planning, and control of concentric tube robots — slender, tentacle-like devices capable of navigating complex anatomical pathways to reach previously inaccessible surgical sites. His mechanics-based motion planning frameworks (2011, 73 citations) and task-oriented design methodologies (2012, 71 citations) established critical groundwork for translating these robots from theory into practice. His work on automatic obstacle avoidance during teleoperation and interactive-rate motion planning further advanced safe, real-world clinical deployment. Beyond concentric tube systems, Torres contributed to transoral lung access robotics for early-stage cancer biopsy and demonstrated the feasibility of robotic endonasal telesurgery (2015, 72 citations), reflecting a broader commitment to expanding the reach of surgical robotics. His innovation in X-ray-based continuum robot shape estimation (2013, 69 citations) added essential sensing capabilities to these systems. With hundreds of citations across his publications, Torres's research continues to shape the future of robot-assisted surgery.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Motion planning for concentric tube robots using mechanics-based models

   73 citations · 2011
2. 2
   An Experimental Feasibility Study on Robotic Endonasal Telesurgery

   72 citations · 2015
3. 3
   Task-oriented design of concentric tube robots using mechanics-based models

   71 citations · 2012
4. 4
   Continuous shape estimation of continuum robots using X-ray images

   69 citations · 2013
5. 5
   A motion planning approach to automatic obstacle avoidance during concentric tube robot teleoperation

   44 citations · 2015
6. 6
   Interactive-rate motion planning for concentric tube robots

   41 citations · 2014
7. 7
   Motion planning for a three-stage multilumen transoral lung access system

   39 citations · 2015
8. 8
   Optimizing design parameters for sets of concentric tube robots using sampling-based motion planning

   32 citations · 2015
9. 9
   Motion planning for concentric tube robots using mechanics-based models

   6 citations · 2011

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links