sCAM: An Untethered Insertable Laparoscopic Surgical Camera Robot

Fully insertable robotic imaging devices represent a promising future of minimally invasive laparoscopic vision. Emerging research efforts in this field have resulted in several proof-of-concept prototypes. One common drawback of these designs derives from their clumsy tethering wires which not only cause operational interference but also reduce camera mobility. Meanwhile, these insertable laparoscopic cameras are manipulated without any pose information or haptic feedback, which results in open loop motion control and raises concerns about surgical safety caused by inappropriate use of force.This dissertation proposes, implements, and validates an untethered insertable laparoscopic surgical camera (sCAM) robot. Contributions presented in this work include: (1) feasibility of an untethered fully insertable laparoscopic surgical camera, (2) camera-tissue interaction characterization and force sensing, (3) pose estimation, visualization, and feedback with sCAM, and (4) robotic-assisted closed-loop laparoscopic camera control. Borrowing the principle of spherical motors, camera anchoring and actuation are achieved through transabdominal magnetic coupling in a stator-rotor manner. To avoid the tethering wires, laparoscopic vision and control communication are realized with dedicated wireless links based on onboard power. A non-invasive indirect approach is proposed to provide real-time camera-tissue interaction force measurement, which, assisted by camera-tissue interaction modeling, predicts stress distribution over the tissue surface. Meanwhile, the camera pose is remotely estimated and visualized using complementary filtering based on onboard motion sensing. Facilitated by the force measurement and pose estimation, robotic-assisted closed-loop control has been realized in a double-loop control scheme with shared autonomy between surgeons and the robotic controller.The sCAM has brought robotic laparoscopic imaging one step further toward less invasiveness and more dexterity. Initial ex vivo test results have verified functions of the implemented sCAM design and the proposed force measurement and pose estimation approaches, demonstrating the technical feasibility of a tetherless insertable laparoscopic camera. Robotic-assisted control has shown its potential to free surgeons from low-level intricate camera manipulation workload and improve precision and intuitiveness in laparoscopic imaging

Sistema de Simulación de la Iluminación Abdominal Basado en Mini Robots

Introduction: This document shows a system that simulates the illumination of the abdominal scene in laparoscopic operations using mini robots. The mini robots would be magnetically tied to the abdominal cavity and manipulated by an external robot arm. Two algorithms are tested in this system: one that moves the mini robot according to the movement of the endoscope, and another that moves from an analysis of the image captured by the scene.  Objective: To contribute to the illumination of the surgical scene by means of mini robots attached magnetically to the abdominal cavity. Methodology: A software tool was developed using Unity3D, which simulates the interior of the abdomen in laparoscopic operations, adding a new lighting: a mini light-type robot magnetically anchored to the abdominal wall. The mini robot has two different movements to illuminate the scene, one depends on the movement of the endoscope and the other on the image analysis performed. Results: Tests were performed with a representation of the real environment comparing it with the tests in the built tool, obtaining similar results and showing the potential of a mini robot to provide additional lighting to the surgeon if necessary. Conclusions: The designed algorithm allows a mini robot that is magnetically anchored in the abdominal wall to move to low-light areas following two options: a geometric relationship or movement as a result of image analysis.  Introducción: Este documento muestra un sistema que simula la iluminación de la escena abdominal en operaciones de laparoscopia utilizando mini robots. Los mini robots estarían atados magnéticamente a la cavidad abdominal y serían manipulados por un brazo robot externo. Dos algoritmos son probados en este sistema: uno que mueve al mini robot de acuerdo al movimiento del endoscopio, y otro que lo mueve a partir de un análisis de la imagen captada por la escena. Objetivo: Contribuir a la iluminación de la escena quirúrgica por medio de mini robots atados magnéticamente a la cavidad abdominal. Metodología: Se desarrolló una herramienta software por medio de Unity3D, la cual simula el interior del abdomen en operaciones de laparoscopia, agregándosele una nueva iluminación: un mini robot tipo luz anclado magnéticamente a la pared abdominal. El mini robot tiene dos movimientos diferentes para iluminar la escena, uno depende del movimiento del endoscopio y otro del análisis de imagen realizado.  Resultados: Se realizaron pruebas con una representación del entorno real comparándola con las pruebas en la herramienta construida, obteniéndose resultados similares y mostrando el potencial que tiene un mini robot para proporcionar una iluminación adicional al cirujano en caso de ser necesario.   Conclusiones: El algoritmo diseñado permite que un mini robot que estaría anclado magnéticamente a la pared abdominal, se mueva a zonas de baja iluminación siguiendo dos opciones: una relación geométrica o un movimiento como resultado de un análisis de imagen

Abdominal Lighting Simulation System Based On Mini Robots

Introduction: This document shows a system that simulates the illumination of the abdominal scene in laparoscopic operations using mini robots. The mini robots would be magnetically tied to the abdominal cavity and manipulated by an external robot arm. Two algorithms are tested in this system: one that moves the mini robot according to the movement of the endoscope, and another that moves from an analysis of the image captured by the scene.  Objective: To contribute to the illumination of the surgical scene by means of mini robots attached magnetically to the abdominal cavity. Methodology: A software tool was developed using Unity3D, which simulates the interior of the abdomen in laparoscopic operations, adding a new lighting: a mini light-type robot magnetically anchored to the abdominal wall. The mini robot has two different movements to illuminate the scene, one depends on the movement of the endoscope and the other on the image analysis performed. Results: Tests were performed with a representation of the real environment comparing it with the tests in the built tool, obtaining similar results and showing the potential of a mini robot to provide additional lighting to the surgeon if necessary. Conclusions: The designed algorithm allows a mini robot that is magnetically anchored in the abdominal wall to move to low-light areas following two options: a geometric relationship or movement as a result of image analysis

Magnetically anchored pan-tilt stereoscopic robot with optical-inertial stabilization for minimally invasive surgery

© 2019 SPIE. We present our latest work on designing a magnetically anchored wireless stereoscopic robot with 2 degrees of freedom (DOF) Pan-Tilt unit for single-port minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This camera could reduce the tool clashing issue in MIS and could provide better angulation and visualization of surgical field. After introduction of the robot through umbilicus (belly button), it is anchored to internal abdominal wall using a magnet from outside. Surgeon can change view angle of the camera remotely via a wireless joystick and a real-time stereo view will be displayed on a user interface screen. Since the robot is anchored using an external magnet on the abdominal wall during the surgical operation, surplus shocks and slight tremble of the robot will result in poor visualization. Therefore, we developed a real-time video stabilization scheme to eliminate these affects. Our proposed method uses a high frequency inertial measurement sensory data fused with visual optical flow vectors, extracted from the stereo camera, to estimate the unwanted shocks during the video streaming. This method compensates and stabilizes video streams in real-time by shifting the video images in the opposite direction of the estimated motion vector. We conducted several experiments including robot control, video streaming performance, and real-time video stabilization to investigate the system function. The results of these experiments are reported in this paper

Proceedings of the 2018 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) International Congress

Published proceedings of the 2018 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) International Congress, hosted by York University, 27-30 May 2018

Manipulador aéreo con brazos antropomórficos de articulaciones flexibles

[Resumen] Este artículo presenta el primer robot manipulador aéreo con dos brazos antropomórficos diseñado para aplicarse en tareas de inspección y mantenimiento en entornos industriales de difícil acceso para operarios humanos. El robot consiste en una plataforma aérea multirrotor equipada con dos brazos antropomórficos ultraligeros, así como el sistema de control integrado de la plataforma y los brazos. Una de las principales características del manipulador es la flexibilidad mecánica proporcionada en todas las articulaciones, lo que aumenta la seguridad en las interacciones físicas con el entorno y la protección del propio robot. Para ello se ha introducido un compacto y simple mecanismo de transmisión por muelle entre el eje del servo y el enlace de salida. La estructura en aluminio de los brazos ha sido cuidadosamente diseñada de forma que los actuadores estén aislados frente a cargas radiales y axiales que los puedan dañar. El manipulador desarrollado ha sido validado a través de experimentos en base fija y en pruebas de vuelo en exteriores.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; DPI2014-5983-C2-1-

The Fifteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting

The three volumes of the proceedings of MG15 give a broad view of all aspects of gravitational physics and astrophysics, from mathematical issues to recent observations and experiments. The scientific program of the meeting included 40 morning plenary talks over 6 days, 5 evening popular talks and nearly 100 parallel sessions on 71 topics spread over 4 afternoons. These proceedings are a representative sample of the very many oral and poster presentations made at the meeting.Part A contains plenary and review articles and the contributions from some parallel sessions, while Parts B and C consist of those from the remaining parallel sessions. The contents range from the mathematical foundations of classical and quantum gravitational theories including recent developments in string theory, to precision tests of general relativity including progress towards the detection of gravitational waves, and from supernova cosmology to relativistic astrophysics, including topics such as gamma ray bursts, black hole physics both in our galaxy and in active galactic nuclei in other galaxies, and neutron star, pulsar and white dwarf astrophysics. Parallel sessions touch on dark matter, neutrinos, X-ray sources, astrophysical black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, binary systems, radiative transfer, accretion disks, quasars, gamma ray bursts, supernovas, alternative gravitational theories, perturbations of collapsed objects, analog models, black hole thermodynamics, numerical relativity, gravitational lensing, large scale structure, observational cosmology, early universe models and cosmic microwave background anisotropies, inhomogeneous cosmology, inflation, global structure, singularities, chaos, Einstein-Maxwell systems, wormholes, exact solutions of Einstein's equations, gravitational waves, gravitational wave detectors and data analysis, precision gravitational measurements, quantum gravity and loop quantum gravity, quantum cosmology, strings and branes, self-gravitating systems, gamma ray astronomy, cosmic rays and the history of general relativity

The Fifteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting

The three volumes of the proceedings of MG15 give a broad view of all aspects of gravitational physics and astrophysics, from mathematical issues to recent observations and experiments. The scientific program of the meeting included 40 morning plenary talks over 6 days, 5 evening popular talks and nearly 100 parallel sessions on 71 topics spread over 4 afternoons. These proceedings are a representative sample of the very many oral and poster presentations made at the meeting.Part A contains plenary and review articles and the contributions from some parallel sessions, while Parts B and C consist of those from the remaining parallel sessions. The contents range from the mathematical foundations of classical and quantum gravitational theories including recent developments in string theory, to precision tests of general relativity including progress towards the detection of gravitational waves, and from supernova cosmology to relativistic astrophysics, including topics such as gamma ray bursts, black hole physics both in our galaxy and in active galactic nuclei in other galaxies, and neutron star, pulsar and white dwarf astrophysics. Parallel sessions touch on dark matter, neutrinos, X-ray sources, astrophysical black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, binary systems, radiative transfer, accretion disks, quasars, gamma ray bursts, supernovas, alternative gravitational theories, perturbations of collapsed objects, analog models, black hole thermodynamics, numerical relativity, gravitational lensing, large scale structure, observational cosmology, early universe models and cosmic microwave background anisotropies, inhomogeneous cosmology, inflation, global structure, singularities, chaos, Einstein-Maxwell systems, wormholes, exact solutions of Einstein's equations, gravitational waves, gravitational wave detectors and data analysis, precision gravitational measurements, quantum gravity and loop quantum gravity, quantum cosmology, strings and branes, self-gravitating systems, gamma ray astronomy, cosmic rays and the history of general relativity