Small surgical robots, or the origami-inspired robots will enhance the precision and control of surgical procedures
Ever since its evolution, surgical procedures have undergone many technological advancements to simplify the complex procedure of surgery. Over the years, these surgical procedures have collaborated with technology rendering the surgeons to perform operations easily. In laparoscopic procedures especially which demands insertion of tools and tiny cameras for incision, the use of surgical robots has been observed as a major advancement. These Surgical robots, despite providing efficiency, control and precision takes up a huge amount of space due to their large form and have tools that are larger than the structures on which they are operated.
This drawback of large surgical robots has been countered by creating a small robot model in the size of a tennis ball. Developed by Wyss Associate faculty member Dr Robert Wood, of Harvard Business School, and Sony Corporation’s Robotics Engineer Hiroyuki Suzuki, this model is the origami-inspired miniature remote centre of motion manipulator (mini-RCM), weighs like a penny and has performed greatly with the mock surgical task.
Structure of the Small Surgical Robot
This model of small surgical robot was developed in the Woods lab using Pop-Up MEMS manufacturing technique. This technique allows deposition of materials on top of each other, in the form of layers, which are bonded together. It follows laser-cut in a specific pattern thus allowing the desired three-dimensional shape to pop-up. This technique simplifies the tiresome procedure of constructing complex structures with hands.
The main structure of the robot is in the form of a parallelogram, with the fabrication of three linear actuators known as mini-LA’s, which is built with the help of piezoelectric ceramic material, which changes the shape when an electric field is applied. The mini LA’s runner unit pushes its rail unit due to change in its shape, thus enabling a linear motion for moving the robot. As the piezoelectric material deforms easily, thus changing the shape of the robot, the actuators are integrated with LED-based optical sensors that would detect and correct any deviation caused due to tremor.
The actuators are smaller and lighter and are arranged in the following manner for controlling the movement of the robots.
- One actuator is placed parallel to the base of the parallelogram for raising and lowering the parallelogram.
- One actuator is placed perpendicular for rotating the parallelogram.
- And one is placed at the tip, which extends for retracting the tool in use.
Mock Surgical Trial
To mimic the teleoperated procedures the mini- RCM to a phantom Omni device, which manipulated the movement of a user’s hand by controlling a pen-like tool. This method was applied to evaluate the human’s ability for tracing the mini-LA’s with either the help of a microscope or by hand or by tracing it through RCM. It was found that mini-RCM improved user accuracy and reduced error by 68%, thus enhancing precisions for repairing small and structures of the human body.
After mimicking the teleoperated procedures, a mock surgical task was established called retinal vein cannulation, in which a needle is inserted by the surgeon through the eye to the tiny veins present at the back of the eyeball. A fabricated silicone-tube, after puncturing it, was attached to the end of the mini-RCM. With the help of this mock test, it was found that apart from being efficient in performing surgical tasks and procedures, this robot model is also easy to set up and install and can move from patients’ body to hand, in case of a power outrage, without compromising the surgical procedure.
The researchers are now aiming to increase the force of robots’ actuators so that maximum force during an operation can be covered by the robot and improving its precision position. A detailed study of this model and its invasive applications is published in Natural Machine Intelligence.
The small surgery robots would now enhance the invasive procedures involving the thin veins, especially in the surgeries associated with vital organs.
The post Small Surgical Robots: The New Tool of Tele-operated Surgeries appeared first on Analytics Insight.
