Annual Research Report, 2010-2011

Annual report of collaborative research projects of Old Dominion University faculty and students in partnership with business, industry and government.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/or_researchreports/1000/thumbnail.jp

The Journal of ERW and Mine Action Issue 10.1 (2006)

Feature: Explosive Remnants of War | Focus: Africa | Profiles | Making it Personal | Notes from the Field | Research and Developmen

CREATING AN INNOVATION OPPORTUNITY SPACE FOR BROADACRE SMART FARMING: A CASE STUDY OF AUTONOMOUS FARM EQUIPMENT

Advances in digital technologies are transforming the agriculture and agri-food system. The technological changes are represented in many forms, ranging from software-based prescriptions for optimal rate application of farm inputs, advanced imagery of fields and plants collected by sensors, satellites and drones, to new forms of human-to-machine interactions and machine learning This thesis is a case study of one type of a smart farming innovation, a field robot., originating from a small-to-medium sized enterprise (SME) that designs and manufacturers machinery used in broadacre, conservation tillage farming. The innovation, known as DOT™, is an entrepreneur’s response to problems in the agriculture industry, and a solution to a critical constraint of labour shortages in the sector. By gathering qualitative data through interviews, news items and academic publications, observing the farming community’s engagement with digital technology innovation at farm show, and applying the Innovation Opportunity Space (IOS) analytical framework, this study identified that an autonomous DOT™ offers a solution for farming problems. Other firms are incorporating the DOT™ technology into their manufacturing operations through licensing agreements and early farmer adoption is positive. The process of innovation was based on synthesis of tacit knowledge (experience-based knowledge of farming and agribusiness) and codified knowledge (drawing on computer programing), while public policy facilitated the hiring of trained university students who remain with the SME as advocates for smart farming. There remain some gaps: public policy for safe deployment of smart farming innovation is lagging behind invention and commercialization; new business models for manufacture and commercialization of high-tech equipment are just emerging and data ownership and control remains unresolved; and evidence of the value of smart farming technologies to farmers and the larger social system remains scant

The Role of Visualization, Force Feedback, and Augmented Reality in Minimally Invasive Heart Valve Repair

New cardiovascular techniques have been developed to address the unique requirements of high risk, elderly, surgical patients with heart valve disease by avoiding both sternotomy and cardiopulmonary bypass. However, these technologies pose new challenges in visualization, force application, and intracardiac navigation. Force feedback and augmented reality (AR) can be applied to minimally invasive mitral valve repair and transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) techniques to potentially surmount these challenges. Our study demonstrated shorter operative times with three dimensional (3D) visualization compared to two dimensional (2D) visualization; however, both experts and novices applied significantly more force to cardiac tissue during 3D robotics-assisted mitral valve annuloplasty than during conventional open mitral valve annuloplasty. This finding suggests that 3D visualization does not fully compensate for the absence of haptic feedback in robotics-assisted cardiac surgery. Subsequently, using an innovative robotics-assisted surgical system design, we determined that direct haptic feedback may improve both expert and trainee performance using robotics-assisted techniques. We determined that during robotics-assisted mitral valve annuloplasty the use of either visual or direct force feedback resulted in a significant decrease in forces applied to cardiac tissue when compared to robotics-assisted mitral valve annuloplasty without force feedback. We presented NeoNav, an AR-enhanced echocardiograpy intracardiac guidance system for NeoChord off-pump mitral valve repair. Our study demonstrated superior tool navigation accuracy, significantly shorter navigation times, and reduced potential for injury with AR enhanced intracardiac navigation for off-pump transapical mitral valve repair with neochordae implantation. In addition, we applied the NeoNav system as a safe and inexpensive alternative imaging modality for TAVI guidance. We found that our proposed AR guidance system may achieve similar or better results than the current standard of care, contrast enhanced fluoroscopy, while eliminating the use of nephrotoxic contrast and ionizing radiation. These results suggest that the addition of both force feedback and augmented reality image guidance can improve both surgical performance and safety during minimally invasive robotics assisted and beating heart valve surgery, respectively