Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FAROS (Functionally Accurate Robotic Surgery)
Período documentado: 2021-01-01 hasta 2022-06-30
Following advances can already be reported :
● in Da Silva et al., 2022, we experimentally investigated the possibility of finely controlling the force applied by the robot to the environment based on the robot's built-in joint impedance controller.
● in Suter et al. 2022, we proposed PSP planning method based on the dorsal aspect of the spine, which can be further applied on the 3D intraoperative US reconstruction that has been developed.
● in Da Silva et al. 2022, we demonstrated the feasibility of automatic bone breach prevention based on bio-electrical conductivity sensing using previously developed breach detection algorithms and the newly developed equipment within FAROS. The robotic drilling setup stopped within a -0.6 / +1.5mm interval from the bone/canal interface in more than 100 ex-vivo experiments.
● in Gruijthuijsen et al. 2022, we introduced and demonstrated a framework for semantically rich surgical scope control. The proposed platform allows the surgeon to perform a bi-manual coordination and navigation tasks while the robotic arm autonomously performs scope positioning. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to report how to construct an autonomous instrument tracking system that allows for solo-surgery using only the endoscope as a sensor to track the surgical tools. A user study confirmed the suitability of the whole robotic system for a standardised bi-manual coordination and navigation surgical task.
● We further made progress in establishing a new approach to ELD under collaborative guidance. The method was tested on an ex-vivo model and received great interest by the participating clinicians.
In consultation with the industrial partner, clinicians and the External Advisory Board, FAROS moves forward to maximize the impact of its research efforts. In the second reporting period we will further work on optimizing our experimental plan and processing our unique data-sets to establish key relations and models that translate towards functionally accurate motion and decision-making. Advances in robotic PSP, minimal invasive PSP and MIS ELD are targeted. While targeting critical spinal applications, the methods to improve functional robotic accuracy are believed to be of broad use also in other surgical fields. Through our active dissemination strategy we aim to broadly grow awareness of the importance of this new approach to robotic surgery.