Juan Sandoval, winner of the NExT Junior Talents award for the PercuCob project: cobotics for safer, more precise medical gestures

Juan Sebastián Sandoval Arévalo is an Associate Professor at Centrale Nantes and a researcher at the LS2N Laboratory (Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique de Nantes) within the RoMaS team (Robots and Machines for Manufacturing, Society and Services). A specialist in medical robotics and physical human–robot interaction, his work focuses on designing safe, precise and intuitive collaborative robots to assist clinicians during medical procedures.

A graduate in mechatronics engineering from the National University of Colombia, he completed a double Master’s degree between Colombia and France at the École Nationale d’Ingénieurs du Val de Loire (now INSA Centre-Val de Loire). He earned his PhD in Robotics from the University of Orléans in 2017 (PRISME Laboratory), with a dissertation on torque-controlled redundant robots for minimally invasive surgery.

Through PercuCob, Juan Sandoval pursues a clear ambition: to make medical robotics more human, placing the clinician at the centre of assistance system. The PercuCob project aims to design a collaborative robot capable of assisting practitioners during percutaneous procedures, such as biopsies or thermo-ablations. Its goal is to make these gestures safer, more precise, and more comfortable for both the patient and the clinician.  PercuCob proposes an innovative approach: a co-manipulated robotic assistant, or cobot, designed as a true partner in the medical gesture. Rather than replacing the practitioner, it works in direct cooperation with them, reducing physical effort while improving stability and precision.

Further information on the PercuCob project