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:2015:10.1504/IJBBR.2015.079373,
author = {Franco, E and Aurisicchio, M and Ristic, M},
doi = {10.1504/IJBBR.2015.079373},
journal = {International Journal of Biomechatronics and Biomedical Robotics},
title = {Design and control of 3-DOF needle positioner for MRI-guided laser ablation of liver tumours},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJBBR.2015.079373},
volume = {3},
year = {2015}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - This article presents the design and control of a pneumatic needle positioner for laser ablation of liver tumours under guidance by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The prototype was developed to provide accurate point-to-point remote positioning of a needle guide inside an MR scanner with the aim of evaluating the potential advantages over the manual procedure. In order to minimise alterations to the MR environment, the system employs plastic pneumatic actuators and 9 m long supply lines connecting with the control hardware located outside the magnet room. An improved sliding mode control (SMC) scheme was designed for the position control of the device. Wireless micro-coil fiducials are used for automatic registration in the reference frame of the MR scanner. The MRI-compatibility and the accuracy of the prototype are demonstrated with experiments in the MR scanner.
AU - Franco,E
AU - Aurisicchio,M
AU - Ristic,M
DO - 10.1504/IJBBR.2015.079373
PY - 2015///
SN - 1757-6792
TI - Design and control of 3-DOF needle positioner for MRI-guided laser ablation of liver tumours
T2 - International Journal of Biomechatronics and Biomedical Robotics
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJBBR.2015.079373
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/52016
VL - 3
ER -
The Hamlyn Centre
Bessemer Building
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Imperial College
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