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:2016:10.1109/TMECH.2015.2476556,
author = {Franco, E and Ristic, M},
doi = {10.1109/TMECH.2015.2476556},
journal = {IEEE-ASME Transactions on Mechatronics},
pages = {931--944},
title = {Needle-guiding robot for laser ablation of liver tumors under MRI guidance},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2015.2476556},
volume = {21},
year = {2016}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - This paper presents the design, control and experimental evaluation of a needle-guiding robot intended for use in laser ablation (LA) of liver tumors under guidance by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The robot provides alignment of a needle guide inside the MRI scanner bore and employs manual needle insertion. In order to minimize MR-image deterioration, the robot is actuated using plastic pneumatic cylinders and long pipes connecting to control valves located outside the MRI scanner room. A new Time Delay Control scheme (TDC) was employed to achieve high position accuracy without requiring pressure or force measurements in the MRI scanner. The control scheme was compared with experiments to a previously developed Sliding Mode Controller (SMC). A marker localization method based on the convolution theorem of Fourier transform was employed to register the robot in the MRI scanner coordinate system and to verify the position of the needle guide before the manual needle insertion. Experiments in a closed-bore MRI scanner showed a variation in SNR below 5%. A phantom study indicates that the targeting error in robot-assisted needle insertions is below 5 mm and suggest a potential time saving of 30 minutes compared to the manual MRI-guided LA procedure.
AU - Franco,E
AU - Ristic,M
DO - 10.1109/TMECH.2015.2476556
EP - 944
PY - 2016///
SN - 1083-4435
SP - 931
TI - Needle-guiding robot for laser ablation of liver tumors under MRI guidance
T2 - IEEE-ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2015.2476556
UR - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7239575
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/25935
VL - 21
ER -
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