38 accepted papers
Robot-assisted minimally invasive neurosurgeries have shown great promise in enabling lower invasiveness and faster patient recovery times. However, performing such surgeries remains challenging, mainly due to the use of rigid surgical tools and limited accessibility to deep-seated brain structures.…
Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is a minimally invasive procedure for diagnosing lung infections and diseases. However, navigating tortuous lung anatomy to the distal branches of the bronchoalveolar tree for adequate sampling using BAL remains challenging. Continuum robots have been used to improve the
Minimally invasive endovascular and transcather procedures frequently involve delivering tools to the surgical site via a guidewire. Even when made steerable, the guidewire tip has the potential to cause tissue damage while traversing the vasculature and the connected organs. In this work, a methodo
Presents corrections to the article “Model-Based Design of the COAST Guidewire Robot for Large Deflection.
The treatment of many intravascular procedures begins with a clinician manually placing a guidewire to the target lesion to aid in placing other devices. Manually steering the guidewire is challenging due to the lack of direct tip control and the high tortuosity of vessel structures, potentially res
Transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr), a minimally invasive approach, is becoming increasingly popular for treating mitral regurgitation (MR) since nearly half of the MR patients are non-surgical candidates. However, current TMVr devices are operated manually, increasing radiation exposure to the
Transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr) is growing in popularity for non-surgical mitral regurgitation (MR) patients, but the manual operation of current TMVr devices increases radiation exposure and limits telesurgery feasibility. A robotically steerable delivery system can alleviate these problem
Presents corrections to the article “Design, Modeling, and Control of a Coaxially Aligned Steerable (COAST) Guidewire Robot”.
Minimally invasive endovascular procedures involve the manual placement of a guidewire, which is made difficult by vascular tortuosity and the lack of precise tip control. Steerable guidewire systems have been developed with tendon-driven, magnetic, and concentric tube actuation strategies to enable
Intracardiac transcatheter systems guided by advanced imaging modalities are gaining popularity in treating mitral regurgitation in non-surgical candidates. Robotically steerable transcatheter systems must use model-based control strategies to ensure safer and more effective transcatheter procedures…
Placement of catheters in minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures is preceded by navigating to the target lesion with a guidewire. Traversing through tortuous vascular pathways can be challenging without precise tip control, potentially resulting in the damage or perforation of blood vessels. T
Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most common type of valvular heart disease, affecting over 2% of the world population, and the gold-standard treatment is surgical mitral valve repair/replacement. Compared to open-heart surgeries, minimally invasive surgeries (MIS) using transcatheter approaches hav
Peripheral vascular intervention remains a challenging procedure mainly due to the tortuosity of the vessels needing to be traversed by guidewires and catheters. In addition, handling long guidewires while navigating tortuous vasculature requires extensive time and skill from the surgeon. In this wo…
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally and surgical treatments for these often begin with the manual placement of a long compliant wire, called a guidewire, through different vasculature. To improve procedure outcomes and reduce radiation exposure, we propose steps towards a
Presents corrections to the above named paper.
This paper presents the mechanism and design of a robotically steerable catheter system for percutaneous and minimally invasive treatment of mitral regurgitation. One of the main causes of mitral regurgitation is an impaired mitral valve topology, that results in severe heart-related diseases. Repai…
Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) can severely impact hand motor and sensory function, and accordingly, patients with SCI are often unable to complete basic everyday tasks without assistance. In recent years, there has been an increase in hand exoskeleton research due to their distinct advantages fo…
Manual navigation of a guidewire is the first step in endovascular interventions. However, this procedure is time consuming with uncertain results due to tortuous vascular anatomy. This paper introduces the design of a novel COaxially Aligned STeerable (COAST) guidewire robot that is 0.40 mm in diam
This article presents a hand exoskeleton using selfsealing suction cup modules to assist and simplify various grasping tasks. Robotic hands, grippers, and hand rehabilitation exoskeletons require complex motion planning and control algorithms to manipulate various objects, which increases system com
Reduced hand function in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients is commonly associated with a lower quality of life and limits the autonomy of the patient because he/she cannot perform most tasks independently. Robotic rehabilitation exoskeletons have been introduced as a method for assisting in hand fun
Endovascular and endoscopic surgical procedures require micro-scale and meso-scale continuum robotic tools to navigate complex anatomical structures. In numerous studies, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based shape sensing has been used for measuring the deflection of continuum robots on larger scales, bu
Mitral regurgitation is one of the most common heart diseases caused by ventricular dysfunction or anatomic abnormality of the mitral valve. The fundamental treatment for mitral regurgitation is to repair/replace the mitral valve through open-heart surgery which is risky and requires more time to re…
This paper presents the development of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) bending sensor for shape memory alloy (SMA) bending modules. Due to the small form factor, low cost, and large-deflection capability, SMA bending modules can be used to construct disposable surgical robots for a variety of minimally…
We present a modular sensing system to measure the deflection of a minimally invasive neurosurgical intracranial robot: MINIR-II. The MINIR-II robot is a tendon-driven continuum robot comprised of multiple spring backbone segments, which has been developed in our prior work. Due to the flexibility o
Hydrocephalus in the pediatric population is often treated with endoscopic procedures, in which a rigid endoscope provides a working channel and needed visualization for brain manipulation. The lack of flexible and steerable endoscopic tools limits the ability of the surgeon to conduct complex opera…
In this work, we propose a voice-controlled hand rehabilitation device driven by exotendons. A smartphone-based voice recognition system interprets user intention and is utilized for various grasping tasks. A bio-inspired tendon routing mechanism provides four-degrees-of-freedom (DoFs) across the th…
The paper presents an MRI-compatible neurosurgical robotic system that is designed to operate the head-mounted meso-scale 6-degree-of-freedom (DoF) spring-based MINIR-II. The robotic system consists of an actuation module, a transmission module, and the robot module. The transmission module consist
In most cases of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), the operating surgeon must use a variety of catheters riding on a thin wire known as a `guidewire'. This guidewire must be manually navigated through a tortuous pathway of arteries to arrive at the diseased area. Automation of the guidewire therefo…
This paper presents the development of a meso-scale fiberoptic rotation sensor for a shape memory alloy (SMA) torsion actuator for neurosurgical applications. Within the sensor, a rotary head with a reflecting surface is capable of modulating the light intensity collected by optical fibers when the
To treat atrial fibrillation (AFib), radiofrequency ablation is usually implemented with a cardiac catheter to block abnormal electrical signals from pulmonary veins. However, it is challenging to manipulate a passive catheter. In addition, the radiation exposure to patients under fluoroscopic guida
This paper presents the development of a skull-mounted robotic headframe for intracranial neurosurgery. The headframe is primarily comprised of a pedestal, a Stewart platform, and a linear actuation module interfacing with a mesoscale neurosurgical robot. In addition to kinematic modeling, motion pl…
Minimally invasive neurosurgical robotic procedure performed under real-time MRI can be achieved with a robot that is head-mounted and fits in a standard MRI bore. The design of a remotely-actuated cable-driven robotic system is presented in this work. A head mounted insertion module has been develo…
This paper addresses the challenge of versatile aerial grasping utilizing suction while considering the limitations of an on-board vacuum pump. It builds upon our patented self-sealing suction cup technology, which allows the exertion of local pulling contact forces for grasping a wide range of obje
This paper presents our work on design, modeling, and control of a meso-scale shape memory alloy (SMA) actuated torsion actuator for miniature robots. This novel torsion actuator is bi-directionally activated by a pair of antagonistic SMA torsion springs through alternate Joule heating. First, we pr…
Micro manipulation is essential for tissue indentation tasks in micro-scale experiment, and microscopes must be equipped with multi degree-of-freedom (DOF) stages to accurately reach the regions of interest (ROI). Current microscope stages have three main drawbacks when applied to material character…
Brain tumor, be it primary or metastatic, is usually life threatening for a person at any age. The risks involved in carrying out surgery within a brain can cause severe anxiety in patients. However, primary surgical resection which is one of the most effective ways of treating brain tumors can have…
This paper presents a prototype of a meso-scale medical robot for Neurosurgical Intracerebral Hemorrhage Evacuation (NICHE). We use shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators for actuating individual degrees-of-freedom (DoFs). Pairs of antagonistic SMA wires enable bidirectional motion of bending joints. A…
Robotic surgery, especially in the field of neurosurgery, can be tremendously improved with the integration of an excellent imaging modality during the procedure. Shape memory alloy (SMA), a high power density and inexpensive MRI-compatible actuator, is therefore being considered as an appropriate a…