Shape displays which actively manipulate surface geometry are an expanding robotics domain with applications to haptics, manufacturing, aerodynamics, and more. However, existing displays often lack ...high-fidelity shape morphing, high-speed deformation, and embedded state sensing, limiting their potential uses. Here, we demonstrate a multifunctional soft shape display driven by a 10 × 10 array of scalable cellular units which combine high-speed electrohydraulic soft actuation, magnetic-based sensing, and control circuitry. We report high-performance reversible shape morphing up to 50 Hz, sensing of surface deformations with 0.1 mm sensitivity and external forces with 50 mN sensitivity in each cell, which we demonstrate across a multitude of applications including user interaction, image display, sensing of object mass, and dynamic manipulation of solids and liquids. This work showcases the rich multifunctionality and high-performance capabilities that arise from tightly-integrating large numbers of electrohydraulic actuators, soft sensors, and controllers at a previously undemonstrated scale in soft robotics.
Minimally invasive abdominal surgery (laparoscopy) results in superior patient outcomes compared to conventional open surgery. However, the difficulty of manipulating traditional laparoscopic tools ...from outside the body of the patient generally limits these benefits to patients undergoing relatively low complexity procedures. The use of tools that fit entirely inside the peritoneal cavity represents a novel approach to laparoscopic surgery. Our previous work demonstrated that miniature mobile and fixed-based in vivo robots using tethers for power and data transmission can successfully operate within the abdominal cavity. This paper describes the development of a modular wireless mobile platform for in vivo sensing and manipulation applications. Design details and results of ex vivo and in vivo tests of robots with biopsy grasper, staple/clamp, video, and physiological sensor payloads are presented. These types of self-contained surgical devices are significantly more transportable and lower in cost than current robotic surgical assistants. They could ultimately be carried and deployed by nonmedical personnel at the site of an injury to allow a remotely located surgeon to provide critical first response medical intervention irrespective of the location of the patient.
Understanding the impact of thermally and mechanically loading biological tissue to supraphysiological levels is becoming of increasing importance as complex multiphysical tissue-device interactions ...increase. The ability to conduct accurate, patient specific computer simulations would provide surgeons with valuable insight into the physical processes occurring within the tissue as it is heated or cooled. Several studies have modeled tissue as porous media, yet fully coupled thermoporomechanics (TPM) models are limited. Therefore, this study introduces a small deformation theory of modeling the TPM occurring within biological tissue. Next, the model is used to simulate the mass, momentum, and energy balance occurring within an artery wall when heated by a tissue fusion device and compared to experimental values. Though limited by its small strain assumption, the model predicted final tissue temperature and water content within one standard deviation of experimental data for seven of seven simulations. Additionally, the model showed the ability to predict the final displacement of the tissue to within 15% of experimental results. These results promote potential design of novel medical devices and more accurate simulations allowing for scientists and surgeons to quickly, yet accurately, assess the effects of surgical procedures as well as provide a first step toward a fully coupled large deformation TPM finite element (FE) model.
The use of small incisions in laparoscopy reduces patient trauma, but also limits the surgeon's ability to view and touch the surgical environment directly. These limitations generally restrict the ...application of laparoscopy to procedures less complex than those performed during open surgery. Although current robot-assisted laparoscopy improves the surgeon's ability to manipulate and visualize the target organs, the instruments and cameras remain fundamentally constrained by the entry incisions. This limits tool tip orientation and optimal camera placement. The current work focuses on developing a new miniature mobile in vivo adjustable-focus camera robot to provide sole visual feedback to surgeons during laparoscopic surgery. A miniature mobile camera robot was inserted through a trocar into the insufflated abdominal cavity of an anesthetized pig. The mobile robot allowed the surgeon to explore the abdominal cavity remotely and view trocar and tool insertion and placement without entry incision constraints. The surgeon then performed a cholecystectomy using the robot camera alone for visual feedback. This successful trial has demonstrated that miniature in vivo mobile robots can provide surgeons with sufficient visual feedback to perform common procedures while reducing patient trauma.
The surgical landscape is quickly changing because of the major driving force of robotics. Well-established technology that provides robotic assistance from outside the patient may soon give way to ...alternative approaches that place the robotic mechanisms inside the patient, whether through traditional laparoscopic ports or through other, natural orifices. While some of this technology is still being developed, other concepts are being evaluated through clinical trials. This article examines the state of the art in surgical robots and mechanisms by providing an overview of the ex vivo robotic systems that are commercially available to in vivo mechanisms, and robotic assistants that are being tested in animal models.
Laparoscopy is abdominal surgery performed with long tools inserted through small incisions. The use of small incisions reduces patient trauma, but also eliminates the surgeon's ability to view and ...touch the surgical environment directly. These limitations generally restrict the application of laparoscopy to procedures less complex than those performed during open surgery. This paper presents a theoretical and experimental analysis of miniature, wheeled, in vivo robots to support laparoscopy. The objective is to develop a wireless mobile imaging robot that can be placed inside the abdominal cavity during surgery. Such robots will allow the surgeon to view the surgical environment from multiple angles. The motion of these in vivo robots will not be constrained by the insertion incisions. Simulation and experimental analyses have led to a wheel design that can attain good mobility performance in in vivo conditions
In this paper, we designed, built, and tested a novel single-port access laparoscopic surgery (SPA) specific camera system. This device (magnet camera) integrates a light source and video camera into ...a small, inexpensive, portable package that does not compete for space with the surgical tools during SPA. The device is inserted through a 26-mm incision in the umbilicus, followed by the SPA port, which is used to maintain an insufflation seal and support the insertion of additional tools. The camera, now in vivo, remains separate from the SPA port, thereby removing the need for a dedicated laparoscope, and, thus, allowing for an overall reduction in SPA port size or the use of a third tool through the insertion port regularly reserved for the traditional laparoscope. The SPA camera is mounted to the abdominal ceiling using one of the two methods: fixation to the SPA port through the use of a rigid ring and cantilever bar, or by an external magnetic handle. The purpose of the magnet camera system is to improve SPA by: 1) eliminating the laparoscope SPA channel; 2) increasing the field of view through enhanced camera system mobility; and 3) reducing interference between the camera system and the surgical tools at the port, both in vivo and ex vivo.
The intraluminal pressures and traction forces associated with the migrating motor complex are well understood; however, the contact forces directly exerted by the bowel wall on a solid, or near ...solid, bolus have not previously been measured. Quantifying contact forces is an important component to understanding the net force experienced by an in vivo robotic capsule endoscope. In this paper, we develop a novel sensor, the migrating motor complex force sensor (MFS), for measuring the contact force generated by the contracting myenteron of the small intestine. The MFS consists of a perfused manometer connected to four torus-shaped balloons custom formed of natural latex rubber and embedded with temperature and pressure sensors. Force exerted on the balloon causes sensor pressure change. In vivo, the MFS measures the magnitude and axial location of contact pressure exerted by the myenteron. The device is tested in vivo in a live porcine model on the middle small bowel. The mean total force per centimeter of axial length of intestine that occurred over a 16-min interval in vivo was 1.04 N·cm -1 in the middle region of the small intestine; the measured force is in the range of theoretical values.
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