In this section
Soft and flexible robotic systems for affordable healthcare.
Our research investigates fundamental aspects of control of soft and flexible robots for surgery. These include harnessing the intrinsic compliance of soft robots, rejecting disturbances that characterise the surgical environment, and complying with stringent safety requirements. Our ambition is to provide affordable robotic solutions for a range of surgical applications, including endoscopy, percutaneous intervention, and multi-handed surgery.
Robotics for healthcare is one of the fastest growing segments in the global robotics market. However, conventional surgical robots are unaffordable in low-resource settings. Harnessing the potential of soft and flexible robots can contribute to making surgery safter, more accurate, and more accessible in low-middle income countries. These are pressing needs due to the aging population, and to the growing workforce crisis in the healthcare market.
Our work aims to improve accuracy, reduce the risk of injury, and reduce discomfort in percutaneous interventions such as biopsy, in diagnostic and interventional endoscopy, and in multi-handed surgery.
Dr Enrico Franco
Lecturer
@article{Franco:2021:10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2020.104060,
author = {Franco, E and Brown, T and Astolfi, A and Rodriguez, y Baena F},
doi = {10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2020.104060},
journal = {Mechanism and Machine Theory},
title = {Adaptive energy shaping control of robotic needle insertion},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2020.104060},
volume = {155},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - This work studies the control of a pneumatic actuator for needle insertion in soft tissue without using axial rotation or additional needle supports. Employing a simplified rigid-link model description of an axial-symmetric tip needle supported at the base, two energy shaping controllers are proposed. The friction forces of the pneumatic actuator are compensated adaptively and the stability conditions for the closed-loop equilibrium are discussed. The controllers are compared by means of simulations and experiments on two different silicone rubber phantoms. The results indicate that the proposed controllers effectively compensate the actuator's friction, which is comparable to the insertion forces for the chosen pneumatic actuators. The first controller only depends on the actuator's position thus it achieves the prescribed insertion depth but results in a larger tip rotation and corresponding deflection. The second controller also accounts for the rotation of the needle tip on the bending plane, which can consequently be reduced by over 70% for this specific system. This is achieved by modulating the actuator force and, in case of harder phantoms, by automatically limiting the insertion depth.
AU - Franco,E
AU - Brown,T
AU - Astolfi,A
AU - Rodriguez,y Baena F
DO - 10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2020.104060
PY - 2021///
SN - 0094-114X
TI - Adaptive energy shaping control of robotic needle insertion
T2 - Mechanism and Machine Theory
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2020.104060
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/82252
VL - 155
ER -
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