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From a developmental and educational perspective, play is a "natural" way in which children learn in an enjoyable manner. This paper aims to describe one possible contribution of selected robotics technology and automation for making toys available to children with severe physical disabilities. This work is mainly based on a qualitative study which is aimed to analyse how children with physical disabilities play in comparison with normal children. One particular result of this study is a dedicated robot system which supports children with the above mentioned disabilities for interaction with standard toys being realized by ARC Seibersdorf research GmbH. Besides of a description of the robot system the paper gives first results from user trials and outlines future development.

One of the most important issues in medical robotics is safety and integration into the clinical workflow. If a robot is not safe and its use is complicated by difficult handling and complex user interfaces physicians would not use a robotic system during clinical patient trials, whatever the other advantages are. However, there are only few publications on this topic, in particular on risk management in developing a robotic prototype (for clinical trials). In this paper risk management and the safety of using robot-assisted surgery equipment are discussed and demonstrated exemplarily in the process of developing a prototype biopsy robot.

An analysis of usability aspects and accuracy for three different methods of neurosurgical intervention-stereotaxy, neuro-navigation, and robotic assistance-was accomplished in a detailed study including clinicians with different experience levels. Accuracy tests with a specially designed phantom were performed under clinical conditions according to EN ISO 9283. Test scenarios were designed according to a realistic clinical work-flow for the brain biopsy process. This paper presents the results of the accuracy evaluation as well as a discussion of the results and further steps.

From a developmental and educational perspective, play is a "natural" way in which children learn in an enjoyable manner. Through play, juveniles interact with their physical and social worlds and 'construct' their mental world. This paper describes a dedicated robot system realized by Austrian Research Centers GmbH -ARC, which supports children with severe physical impairments for interaction with standard toys. Beside of a description of the robot system the paper gives first results from user trials and outlines future development.