23 accepted papers
Robotic-assisted procedures offer enhanced precision, but while fully autonomous systems are limited in task knowledge, difficulties in modeling unstructured environments, and generalization abilities, fully manual teleoperated systems also face challenges such as delay, stability, and reduced senso
Robotic-assisted procedures offer enhanced precision, but while fully autonomous systems are limited in task knowledge, difficulties in modeling unstructured environments, and generalisation abilities, fully manual teleoperated systems also face challenges such as delay, stability, and reduced senso…
Colonoscopy is a medical procedure used to examine the inside of the colon for abnormalities, such as polyps or cancer. Traditionally, this is done by manually inserting a long, flexible tube called a colonoscope into the colon. However, this method can cause pain, discomfort, and even the risk of p…
In robot-assisted surgery, Forbidden Region Active Constraints (FRAC) represent a control strategy that helps maintain task safety by generating anisotropic haptic guidance to surgeons. However, several challenges need to be overcome before FRAC can benefit teleoperative surgery in a clinical settin
This work proposes a state-of-the-art transformer architecture to detect and segment catheters in axial interventional Ultrasound image sequences. The network architecture was inspired by the Attention in Attention mechanism, temporal tracking networks, and introduced a novel 3D segmentation head th…
In minimally invasive endovascular procedures, contrast-enhanced angiography remains the most robust imaging technique, but exposes patients and surgeons to prolonged radiation. Alternatives such as ultrasound are difficult to interpret, are highly prone to artifacts and noise, and vary in quality,…
This paper presents a novel pneumatic pouch sensor, designed to mount on a colonoscope, that can effectively estimate the contact forces with the environment. The pouch sensor was designed to maximize the sensing range, and it was fabricated using a 2D laser welding technique from our track record.…
While surgical robots, such as the da Vinci Surgical System, have become prevalent in minimally invasive surgery, they are predominantly used by the human operator to directly teleoperate the tools. This paper aims to analyse the different methods of human robot shared control in the surgical domain…
This letter introduces a novel hybrid manipulator composed of two pneumatically-actuated soft segments and a tendon-driven continuum segment, connected in series. The soft segments enhance the mobility of the tendon-driven manipulator, enabling functionalities such as triangulation while maintaining
In this article we investigate the discrete-time model based control of a planar soft continuum manipulator with proprioceptive sensing provided by fiber Bragg gratings. A control algorithm is designed with a discrete-time energy shaping approach which is extended to account for control-related lag…
In this article, we investigate the model based position control of soft hydraulic actuators arranged in an an-tagonistic pair. A dynamical model of the system is constructed by employing the port-Hamiltonian formulation. A control algorithm is designed with an energy shaping approach, which account…
Cochlear implants (CIs) can improve hearing in patients suffering from sensorineural hearing loss via an electrode array (EA) carefully inserted in the scala tympani. Current EAs can cause trauma during insertion, threatening hearing preservation; hence we proposed a pre-curved thermally drawn EA th…
While the traditional control of surgical robots relies on fully manual teleoperations, human-robot collaborative systems promise to address issues such as workspace constrains and laborious tasks. In particular, shared control can reduce the surgeon's workload and improve the overall surgical perfo
This paper presents a new 6 DOF soft robotic manipulator intended for colorectal surgery. The manipulator, based on a novel design that employs an inextensible tube to limit axial extension, is shown to maximize the force exerted at its tip and the bending angle, the latter being measured with a sof…
Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to improve the immersion and efficiency of computer-assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS) by allowing surgeons to maintain focus on the operating site rather than external displays in the operating theatre. Successful deployment of AR to CAOS requires a calibra…
This study investigates the use of Laser Doppler Flowmetry (LDF) as a method to detect tissue transitions during robotic needle insertions. Insertions were performed in gelatin tissue phantoms with different optical and mechanical properties and into ex-vivo sheep brain. The effect of changing the o
Bevel-tip steerable needles for percutaneous intervention are prone to torsion determined by the interaction forces with the human tissue. If disregarded, torsion can affect the insertion accuracy inducing a change in the needle tip orientation, which is generally undetectable by tracking devices be
Needle pose tracking is fundamental to achieve a precise and safe insertion in minimally-invasive percutaneous interventions. In this work, a method for estimating the full pose of steerable needles is presented, considering a four-segment Programmable Bevel-Tip Needle (PBN) as a case study. The met…
Robotic minimally invasive surgery has been a subject of intense research and development over the last three decades, due to the clinical advantages it holds for patients and doctors alike. Particularly for drug delivery mechanisms, higher precision and the ability to follow complex trajectories in…
In this paper, an automatic planner for minimally invasive neurosurgery is presented. The solution provides the neurosurgeon with the best path to connect a user-defined entry point with a target in accordance with a specific cost function. The approach guarantees the avoidance of obstacles which ca…
During percutaneous interventions in the brain, puncturing a vessel can cause life threatening complications. To avoid such a risk, current research has been directed towards the development of steerable needles. However, there is a risk that vessels of a size which is close to or smaller than the r…
Steerable needles are a promising technology for minimally invasive surgery, as they can provide access to difficult to reach locations while avoiding delicate anatomical regions. However, due to the unpredictable tissue deformation associated with needle insertion and the complexity of many surgica
Percutaneous intervention is a commonly used surgical procedure for many diagnostic and therapeutic operations. Target motion in soft tissue during an intervention caused by tissue deformation is a common problem, along with needle displacement. In this work, we present a deformation planner that ge…