SBIR Phase I: Robotic Scrub Technician

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目建议为手术室中的机器人擦洗技术员开发认知结构的初始组成部分。擦洗技师将维护一盘器械，当外科医生提出要求时，将器械交给外科医生，当外科医生用完器械时，将器械取回。机会是降低医院人员成本，缓解严重的护理短缺问题。问题是要为机器人提供可与经验丰富的人类擦洗技师相媲美的情景感知能力，特别是在预测外科医生下一步请求的能力方面。该项目的目标是确定使用人工智能和统计技术来提供这一能力的可行性。该研究方法将使用来自实际手术的数据集，比较选定的时间序列预测和分类技术。候选技术将包括一到三阶马尔可夫方法、N序列匹配、神经网络和基于模糊集的推理。最终产品预计将是一种预测引擎，将使临床版本的机器人的表现与经验丰富的人类擦洗技术员一样或更好。该项目的商业应用是在生物医学设备和仪器领域。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to develop the initial component of a cognitive structure for a robotic scrub technician in the operating room. The scrub technician will maintain a tray of instruments, handing an instrument to the surgeon when requested and retrieving the instrument when the surgeon is finished with it. The opportunity is to reduce hospital personnel costs and alleviate a critical nursing shortage problem. The problem is to provide the robot with situational awareness comparable to an experienced human scrub technician, particularly in the ability to anticipate the surgeon's next request. The objective of the project is to determine the feasibility of using artificial intelligence and statistical techniques to provide this ability. The research method will compare selected techniques for time series prediction and classification, using data sets from actual surgeries. The candidate techniques will include first to third order Markov methods, N-sequence matching, neural networks and fuzzy set based inference. The end product is expected to be a prediction engine that will enable the clinical version of the robot to perform as well or better than an experienced human scrub technician. The commercial application of this project is in the area of biomedical devices and instrumentation.