Fiber Bragg Gratings for Medical Applications and Future Challenges: A Review

[EN] In the last decades, fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have become increasingly attractive to medical applications due to their unique properties such as small size, biocompatibility, immunity to electromagnetic interferences, high sensitivity and multiplexing capability. FBGs have been employed in the development of surgical tools, assistive devices, wearables, and biosensors, showing great potentialities for medical uses. This paper reviews the FBG-based measuring systems, their principle of work, and their applications in medicine and healthcare. Particular attention is given to sensing solutions for biomechanics, minimally invasive surgery, physiological monitoring, and medical biosensing. Strengths, weaknesses, open challenges, and future trends are also discussed to highlight how FBGs can meet the demands of next-generation medical devices and healthcare system.This work was supported in part by INAIL (the Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accident at Work), through the BRIC (Bando ricerche in collaborazione) 2018 SENSE-RISC (Sviluppo di abiti intelligENti Sensorizzati per prevenzione e mitigazione di Rischi per la SiCurezza dei lavoratori) Project under Grant ID10/2018, in part by the UCBM (Universita Campus Bio-Medico di Roma) under the University Strategic HOPE (HOspital to the PatiEnt) Project, in part by the EU Framework Program H2020-FETPROACT-2018-01 NeuHeart Project under Grant GA 824071, by FCT/MEC (Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia) under the Projects UIDB/50008/2020 - UIDP/50008/2020, and by REACT (Development of optical fiber solutions for Rehabilitation and e-Health applications) FCT-IT-LA scientific action.Lo Presti, D.; Massaroni, C.; Leitao, CSJ.; Domingues, MDF.; Sypabekova, M.; Barrera, D.; Floris, I.... (2020). Fiber Bragg Gratings for Medical Applications and Future Challenges: A Review. IEEE Access. 8:156863-156888. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3019138S156863156888

Development of Piezoresistive Tactile Sensors and a Graphical Display System for Minimally Invasive Surgery and Robotics

Development of Piezoresistive Tactile Sensors and a Graphical Display System for Minimally Invasive Surgery and Robotics Masoud Kalantari, PhD Concordia University, 2013 This PhD work presents a new tactile and feedback systems for minimally invasive surgery (MIS)and robotics. The thesis is divided into two major sections: the tactile sensing system, and the graphical display system. In the tactile sensing system, piezoresistive materials are used as measuring elements. The first part of the thesis is focused on the theoretical modeling of piezoresistive sensing elements, which are semiconductive polymer composites. The model predicts the piezoresistive behavior in semiconductive polymer composites, including their creep effect and contact resistance. A single force sensing resistor (FSR) is, then, developed by using the semiconductive polymer composite materials. The developed FSR is used in the structure of a novel tactile sensor as the transduction element. The developed tactile sensor is designed to measure the difference in the hardness degree of soft tissues. This capability of the sensor helps surgeons to distinguish different types of tissues involved in the surgery. The tactile sensor is integrated on the extremity of a surgical tool to provide tactile feedback from the interaction between surgical instruments and the tissue during MIS. Mitral valve annuloplasty repair by MIS is of our particular interest to be considered as a potential target for the use of the developed tactile sensor. In the next step, the contact interaction of the tactile sensor with soft tissues is modelled, parametrically. Viscoelastic interaction is considered between the tactile sensor and atrial tissue in annuloplasty mitral valve repair; and a parametric solution for the viscoelastic contact is achieved. In addition to the developed sensor, a novel idea regarding measuring the indentation rate, in addition to measuring force and displacement is implemented in a new design of an array tactile sensor. It is shown that the indentation-rate measurement is an important factor in distinguishing the hardness degree of tissues with viscoelastic behaviour. The second part of the thesis is focused on the development of a three-dimensional graphical display that provides visual palpation display to any surgeon performing robotic assisted MIS. Two matrices of the developed piezoresistive force sensor are used to palpate the tissue and collect the tactile information. The collected data are processed with a new algorithm and graphically rendered in three dimensions. Consequently, the surgeon can determine the presence, location, and the size of any hidden superficial tumor/artery by grasping the target tissue in a quasi-dynamic way

Research and development of a rescue robot end-effector

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.This report details the research, design, development and testing of an end-effector system for use on an Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) robot which is in development in the Robotics and Agents Research Laboratory (RARL) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). This is the 5th generation Mobile Robot Platform (MRP) that UCT has developed ... codenamed ‘Ratel’. USAR robots used to be mainly of the observation type, but new robots (including UCT’s Ratel MRP) are being developed to deal with inherently dynamic, complex and unpredictable disaster response situations, particularly related to object manipulation and gripping. In order to actively interact with the environment, a flexible and robust gripping system is vital. [an] end-effector solution ... was developed for the Ratel manipulator arm to fulfil these functions

Operational Parameters for Sub-Nano Tesla Field Resolution of PHMR Sensors in Harsh Environments

The resolution of planar-Hall magnetoresistive (PHMR) sensors was investigated in the frequency range from 0.5 Hz to 200 Hz in terms of its sensitivity, average noise level, and detectivity. Analysis of the sensor sensitivity and voltage noise response was performed by varying operational parameters such as sensor geometrical architectures, sensor configurations, sensing currents, and temperature. All the measurements of PHMR sensors were carried out under both constant current (CC) and constant voltage (CV) modes. In the present study, Barkhausen noise was revealed in 1/f noise and found less significant in the PHMR sensor configuration. under measured noise spectral density at optimized conditions, the best magnetic field detectivity was achieved better than 550 pT/√ Hz at 100 Hz and close to 1.1 nT/√ Hz at 10 Hz for a tri-layer multi-ring PHMR sensor in an unshielded environment. Furthermore, the promising feasibility and possible routes for further improvement of the sensor resolution are discussed. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Data Availability Statement: All data generated or analyzed during this work are included in funded by the MSIT (No. NRF-2018R11025511) and R&D program of MOTIE (No. 20011264). funded by the MSIT (No. NRF-2018R11025511) and R&D program of MOTIE (No. 20011264)