In this section

Mechatronics in Medicine

The MIM Lab develops robotic and mechatronics surgical systems for a variety of procedures.

Head of Group

B415C Bessemer Building
South Kensington Campus

+44 (0)20 7594 7046

What we do

The Mechatronics in Medicine Laboratory develops robotic and mechatronics surgical systems for a variety of procedures including neuro, cardiovascular, orthopaedic surgeries, and colonoscopies. Examples include bio-inspired catheters that can navigate along complex paths within the brain (such as EDEN2020), soft robots to explore endoluminal anatomies (such as the colon), and virtual reality solutions to support surgeons during knee replacement surgeries.

Meet the team

Mr Ayhan Aktas
Casual - Student demonstrator - lower rate

Dr Daniel Bautista Salinas
Research Associate

Dr Kaiwen Chen
Research Associate

Mr Zejian Cui
Research Assistant

Mr Connor Daly
Research Postgraduate

Emeritus Professor Brian L Davies FREng
Emeritus Professor

Mr Zhaoyang Jacopo Hu
Research Postgraduate

Dr Hisham M Iqbal
Research Associate

Mr Alex Ranne
Research Postgraduate

Professor Ferdinando M Rodriguez y Baena
Co-Director of Hamlyn Centre, Professor of Medical Robotics

Dr Jialei Shi
Research Associate

Mr Spyridon Souipas
Casual - Other work

Ms Emilia Zari
Research Postgraduate

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Tan:2018:10.1016/j.matdes.2018.10.018,
author = {Tan, Z and Dini, D and Rodriguez, y Baena F and Forte, A},
doi = {10.1016/j.matdes.2018.10.018},
journal = {Materials and Design},
pages = {886--894},
title = {Composite hydrogel: A high fidelity soft tissue mimic for surgery},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2018.10.018},
volume = {160},
year = {2018}
}

Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Accurate tissue phantoms are difficult to design due to the complex non-linear viscoelastic properties of real soft tissues. A composite hydrogel, resulting from a mix of poly(vinyl) alcohol and phytagel, is able to reproduce the viscoelastic responses of different soft tissues due to its compositional tunability. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the flexibility of the composite hydrogel in mimicking the interactions between surgical tools and various soft tissues, such as brain, lung and liver. Therefore compressive stiffness, insertion forces and frictional forces were used as matching criteria to determine the hydrogel compositions for each soft tissue. A full map of the behaviour of the synthetic material is provided for these three characteristics and the compositions found to best match the mechanical response of brain, lung and liver are reported. The optimised hydrogel samples are then tested and shown to mimic the behaviour of the three tissues with unprecedented fidelity. The effect of each hydrogel constituent on the compressive stiffness, needle insertion and frictional forces is also detailed in this work to explain their individual contributions and synergistic effects. This study opens important opportunities for the realisation of surgical planning and training devices and tools for in-vitro tissue testing.
AU  - Tan,Z
AU  - Dini,D
AU  - Rodriguez,y Baena F
AU  - Forte,A
DO  - 10.1016/j.matdes.2018.10.018
EP  - 894
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 0264-1275
SP  - 886
TI  - Composite hydrogel: A high fidelity soft tissue mimic for surgery
T2  - Materials and Design
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2018.10.018
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/65521
VL  - 160
ER  -