15 research outputs found
Workshop on "Control issues in the micro / nano - world".
International audienceDuring the last decade, the need of systems with micro/nanometers accuracy and fast dynamics has been growing rapidly. Such systems occur in applications including 1) micromanipulation of biological cells, 2) micrassembly of MEMS/MOEMS, 3) micro/nanosensors for environmental monitoring, 4) nanometer resolution imaging and metrology (AFM and SEM). The scale and requirement of such systems present a number of challenges to the control system design that will be addressed in this workshop. Working in the micro/nano-world involves displacements from nanometers to tens of microns. Because of this precision requirement, environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, vibration, could generate noise and disturbance that are in the same range as the displacements of interest. The so-called smart materials, e.g., piezoceramics, magnetostrictive, shape memory, electroactive polymer, have been used for actuation or sensing in the micro/nano-world. They allow high resolution positioning as compared to hinges based systems. However, these materials exhibit hysteresis nonlinearity, and in the case of piezoelectric materials, drifts (called creep) in response to constant inputs In the case of oscillating micro/nano-structures (cantilever, tube), these nonlinearities and vibrations strongly decrease their performances. Many MEMS and NEMS applications involve gripping, feeding, or sorting, operations, where sensor feedback is necessary for their execution. Sensors that are readily available, e.g., interferometer, triangulation laser, and machine vision, are bulky and expensive. Sensors that are compact in size and convenient for packaging, e.g., strain gage, piezoceramic charge sensor, etc., have limited performance or robustness. To account for these difficulties, new control oriented techniques are emerging, such as[d the combination of two or more âpackageable' sensors , the use of feedforward control technique which does not require sensors, and the use of robust controllers which account the sensor characteristics. The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum for specialists to present and overview the different approaches of control system design for the micro/nano-world and to initiate collaborations and joint projects
Towards Exoscope Automation in Neurosurgery: A Markerless Visual-Servoing Approach
Exoscopes are a promising tool for neurosurgeons, offering improved visualisation and ergonomics compared with traditional surgical microscopes. They consist of an external scope that projects the surgical field onto a 2D or 3D monitor, providing a wider field of view and better access to the surgical site. Despite the advantages, exoscopes present some limitations, such as the need for manual or foot joystick repositioning, which can disrupt the flow of the procedure and increase the risk of user error. In this study, a markerless visual-servoing approach for autonomous exoscope control is proposed to address these limitations and enhance the ergonomics and reduce the physical and cognitive load compared with traditional joystick control. The system uses visual information from the operating field to control the exoscope, eliminating the need for markers or additional tracking devices. The proposed approach was validated using a 7-DOF robotic manipulator with a stereo camera in an eyein-hand configuration. Results showed that the system achieved 89% accuracy in detecting the target and tracking its movement with a tracking error ranging from 0.50 +/- 0.17 cm for lowspeed movements to 1.38 +/- 0.73 cm for high-speed movements. The proposed system also demonstrated improved efficiency, with a shorter execution time of 72.07 +/- 19.36 s compared with 106.52 +/- 18.50 s for the foot-joystick control. Additionally, the time out of the FoV was significantly higher in the joystick control mode and the frequency of appearance of the instrument in the centre of the image was higher when using the proposed system. The NASA TLX results indicated lower physical and cognitive load compared with the joystick control-based modality
From teleoperation to autonomous robot-assisted microsurgery: A survey
Robot-assisted microsurgery (RAMS) has many benefits compared to traditional microsurgery. Microsurgical platforms with advanced control strategies, high-quality micro-imaging modalities and micro-sensing systems are worth developing to further enhance the clinical outcomes of RAMS. Within only a few decades, microsurgical robotics has evolved into a rapidly developing research field with increasing attention all over the world. Despite the appreciated benefits, significant challenges remain to be solved. In this review paper, the emerging concepts and achievements of RAMS will be presented. We introduce the development tendency of RAMS from teleoperation to autonomous systems. We highlight the upcoming new research opportunities that require joint efforts from both clinicians and engineers to pursue further outcomes for RAMS in years to come
Microdevices and Microsystems for Cell Manipulation
Microfabricated devices and systems capable of micromanipulation are well-suited for the manipulation of cells. These technologies are capable of a variety of functions, including cell trapping, cell sorting, cell culturing, and cell surgery, often at single-cell or sub-cellular resolution. These functionalities are achieved through a variety of mechanisms, including mechanical, electrical, magnetic, optical, and thermal forces. The operations that these microdevices and microsystems enable are relevant to many areas of biomedical research, including tissue engineering, cellular therapeutics, drug discovery, and diagnostics. This Special Issue will highlight recent advances in the field of cellular manipulation. Technologies capable of parallel single-cell manipulation are of special interest
Dynamic Active Constraints for Surgical Robots using Vector Field Inequalities
Robotic assistance allows surgeons to perform dexterous and tremor-free
procedures, but robotic aid is still underrepresented in procedures with
constrained workspaces, such as deep brain neurosurgery and endonasal surgery.
In these procedures, surgeons have restricted vision to areas near the surgical
tooltips, which increases the risk of unexpected collisions between the shafts
of the instruments and their surroundings. In this work, our
vector-field-inequalities method is extended to provide dynamic
active-constraints to any number of robots and moving objects sharing the same
workspace. The method is evaluated with experiments and simulations in which
robot tools have to avoid collisions autonomously and in real-time, in a
constrained endonasal surgical environment. Simulations show that with our
method the combined trajectory error of two robotic systems is optimal.
Experiments using a real robotic system show that the method can autonomously
prevent collisions between the moving robots themselves and between the robots
and the environment. Moreover, the framework is also successfully verified
under teleoperation with tool-tissue interactions.Comment: Accepted on T-RO 2019, 19 Page
Force-Sensing-Based Multi-Platform Robotic Assistance for Vitreoretinal Surgery
Vitreoretinal surgery aims to treat disorders of the retina, vitreous body, and macula, such as retinal detachment, diabetic retinopathy, macular hole, epiretinal membrane and retinal vein occlusion. Challenged by several technical and human limitations, vitreoretinal practice currently ranks amongst the most demanding fields in ophthalmic surgery. Of vitreoretinal procedures, membrane peeling is the most common to be performed, over 0.5 million times annually, and among the most prone to complications. It requires an extremely delicate tissue manipulation by various micron scale maneuvers near the retina despite the physiological hand tremor of the operator. In addition, to avoid injuries, the applied forces on the retina need to be kept at a very fine level, which is often well below the tactile sensory threshold of the surgeon. Retinal vein cannulation is another demanding procedure where therapeutic agents are injected into occluded retinal veins. The feasibility of this treatment is limited due to challenges in identifying the moment of venous puncture, achieving cannulation and maintaining it throughout the drug delivery period.
Recent advancements in medical robotics have significant potential to address most of the challenges in vitreoretinal practice, and therefore to prevent traumas, lessen complications, minimize intra-operative surgeon effort, maximize surgeon comfort, and promote patient safety. This dissertation presents the development of novel force-sensing tools that can easily be used on various robotic platforms, and robot control methods to produce integrated assistive surgical systems that work in partnership with surgeons against the current limitations in vitreoretinal surgery, specifically focusing on membrane peeling and vein cannulation procedures. Integrating high sensitivity force sensing into the ophthalmic instruments enables precise quantitative monitoring of applied forces. Auditory feedback based upon the measured forces can inform (and warn) the surgeon quickly during the surgery and help prevent injury due to excessive forces. Using these tools on a robotic platform can attenuate hand tremor of the surgeon, which effectively promotes tool manipulation accuracy. In addition, based upon certain force signatures, the robotic system can precisely identify critical instants, such as the venous puncture in retinal vein cannulation, and actively guide the tool towards clinical targets, compensate any involuntary motion of the surgeon, or generate additional motion that will make the surgical task easier. The experimental results using two distinct robotic platforms, the Steady-Hand Eye Robot and Micron, in combination with the force-sensing ophthalmic instruments, show significant performance improvement in artificial dry phantoms and ex vivo biological tissues
Intraoperative Planning and Execution of Arbitrary Orthopedic Interventions Using Handheld Robotics and Augmented Reality
The focus of this work is a generic, intraoperative and image-free planning and execution application for arbitrary orthopedic interventions using a novel handheld robotic device and optical see-through glasses (AR). This medical CAD application enables the surgeon to intraoperatively plan the intervention directly on the patientâs bone. The glasses and all the other instruments are accurately calibrated using new techniques. Several interventions show the effectiveness of this approach
A continuum robotic platform for endoscopic non-contact laser surgery: design, control, and preclinical evaluation
The application of laser technologies in surgical interventions has been accepted in the clinical
domain due to their atraumatic properties. In addition to manual application of fibre-guided
lasers with tissue contact, non-contact transoral laser microsurgery (TLM) of laryngeal tumours
has been prevailed in ENT surgery. However, TLM requires many years of surgical training
for tumour resection in order to preserve the function of adjacent organs and thus preserve the
patientâs quality of life. The positioning of the microscopic laser applicator outside the patient
can also impede a direct line-of-sight to the target area due to anatomical variability and limit
the working space. Further clinical challenges include positioning the laser focus on the tissue
surface, imaging, planning and performing laser ablation, and motion of the target area during
surgery. This dissertation aims to address the limitations of TLM through robotic approaches and
intraoperative assistance. Although a trend towards minimally invasive surgery is apparent, no
highly integrated platform for endoscopic delivery of focused laser radiation is available to date.
Likewise, there are no known devices that incorporate scene information from endoscopic imaging
into ablation planning and execution. For focusing of the laser beam close to the target tissue, this
work first presents miniaturised focusing optics that can be integrated into endoscopic systems.
Experimental trials characterise the optical properties and the ablation performance. A robotic
platform is realised for manipulation of the focusing optics. This is based on a variable-length
continuum manipulator. The latter enables movements of the endoscopic end effector in five
degrees of freedom with a mechatronic actuation unit. The kinematic modelling and control of the
robot are integrated into a modular framework that is evaluated experimentally. The manipulation
of focused laser radiation also requires precise adjustment of the focal position on the tissue. For
this purpose, visual, haptic and visual-haptic assistance functions are presented. These support
the operator during teleoperation to set an optimal working distance. Advantages of visual-haptic
assistance are demonstrated in a user study. The system performance and usability of the overall
robotic system are assessed in an additional user study. Analogous to a clinical scenario, the
subjects follow predefined target patterns with a laser spot. The mean positioning accuracy of the
spot is 0.5 mm. Finally, methods of image-guided robot control are introduced to automate laser
ablation. Experiments confirm a positive effect of proposed automation concepts on non-contact
laser surgery.Die Anwendung von Lasertechnologien in chirurgischen Interventionen hat sich aufgrund der atraumatischen Eigenschaften in der Klinik etabliert. Neben manueller Applikation von fasergefĂŒhrten
Lasern mit Gewebekontakt hat sich die kontaktfreie transorale Lasermikrochirurgie (TLM) von
Tumoren des Larynx in der HNO-Chirurgie durchgesetzt. Die TLM erfordert zur Tumorresektion
jedoch ein langjÀhriges chirurgisches Training, um die Funktion der angrenzenden Organe zu
sichern und damit die LebensqualitĂ€t der Patienten zu erhalten. Die Positionierung des mikroskopis chen Laserapplikators auĂerhalb des Patienten kann zudem die direkte Sicht auf das Zielgebiet
durch anatomische VariabilitÀt erschweren und den Arbeitsraum einschrÀnken. Weitere klinische
Herausforderungen betreffen die Positionierung des Laserfokus auf der GewebeoberflÀche, die
Bildgebung, die Planung und AusfĂŒhrung der Laserablation sowie intraoperative Bewegungen
des Zielgebietes. Die vorliegende Dissertation zielt darauf ab, die Limitierungen der TLM durch
robotische AnsÀtze und intraoperative Assistenz zu adressieren. Obwohl ein Trend zur minimal
invasiven Chirurgie besteht, sind bislang keine hochintegrierten Plattformen fĂŒr die endoskopische
Applikation fokussierter Laserstrahlung verfĂŒgbar. Ebenfalls sind keine Systeme bekannt, die
Szeneninformationen aus der endoskopischen Bildgebung in die Ablationsplanung und -ausfĂŒhrung
einbeziehen. FĂŒr eine situsnahe Fokussierung des Laserstrahls wird in dieser Arbeit zunĂ€chst
eine miniaturisierte Fokussieroptik zur Integration in endoskopische Systeme vorgestellt. Experimentelle Versuche charakterisieren die optischen Eigenschaften und das Ablationsverhalten. Zur
Manipulation der Fokussieroptik wird eine robotische Plattform realisiert. Diese basiert auf einem
lÀngenverÀnderlichen Kontinuumsmanipulator. Letzterer ermöglicht in Kombination mit einer
mechatronischen Aktuierungseinheit Bewegungen des Endoskopkopfes in fĂŒnf Freiheitsgraden.
Die kinematische Modellierung und Regelung des Systems werden in ein modulares Framework
eingebunden und evaluiert. Die Manipulation fokussierter Laserstrahlung erfordert zudem eine
prĂ€zise Anpassung der Fokuslage auf das Gewebe. DafĂŒr werden visuelle, haptische und visuell haptische Assistenzfunktionen eingefĂŒhrt. Diese unterstĂŒtzen den Anwender bei Teleoperation
zur Einstellung eines optimalen Arbeitsabstandes. In einer Anwenderstudie werden Vorteile der
visuell-haptischen Assistenz nachgewiesen. Die Systemperformanz und Gebrauchstauglichkeit
des robotischen Gesamtsystems werden in einer weiteren Anwenderstudie untersucht. Analog zu
einem klinischen Einsatz verfolgen die Probanden mit einem Laserspot vorgegebene Sollpfade. Die
mittlere Positioniergenauigkeit des Spots betrÀgt dabei 0,5 mm. Zur Automatisierung der Ablation
werden abschlieĂend Methoden der bildgestĂŒtzten Regelung vorgestellt. Experimente bestĂ€tigen
einen positiven Effekt der Automationskonzepte fĂŒr die kontaktfreie Laserchirurgie