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{Petersen:2016:10.1109/TRO.2015.2507163,
author = {Petersen, J and Bowyer, S and Rodriguez, y Baena F},
doi = {10.1109/TRO.2015.2507163},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics},
pages = {201--213},
title = {Mass and friction optimization for natural motion in hands-on robotic surgery},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2015.2507163},
volume = {32},
year = {2016}
}

Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - In hands-on robotic surgery, the surgical tool is mounted on the end-effector of a robot and is directly manipulated by the surgeon. This simultaneously exploits the strengths of both humans and robots, such that the surgeon directly feels tool-tissue interactions and remains in control of the procedure, while taking advantage of the robot's higher precision and accuracy. A crucial challenge in hands-on robotics for delicate manipulation tasks, such as surgery, is that the user must interact with the dynamics of the robot at the end-effector, which can reduce dexterity and increase fatigue. This paper presents a null-space-based optimization technique for simultaneously minimizing the mass and friction of the robot that is experienced by the surgeon. By defining a novel optimization technique for minimizing the projection of the joint friction onto the end-effector, and integrating this with our previous techniques for minimizing the belted mass/inertia as perceived by the hand, a significant reduction in dynamics felt by the user is achieved. Experimental analyses in both simulation and human user trials demonstrate that the presented method can reduce the user-experienced dynamic mass and friction by, on average, 44% and 41%, respectively. The results presented robustly demonstrate that optimizing a robots pose can result in a more natural tool motion, potentially allowing future surgical robots to operate with increased usability, improved surgical outcomes, and wider clinical uptake.
AU  - Petersen,J
AU  - Bowyer,S
AU  - Rodriguez,y Baena F
DO  - 10.1109/TRO.2015.2507163
EP  - 213
PY  - 2016///
SN  - 1552-3098
SP  - 201
TI  - Mass and friction optimization for natural motion in hands-on robotic surgery
T2  - IEEE Transactions on Robotics
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2015.2507163
UR  - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7384515
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/28141
VL  - 32
ER  -