SBIR Phase I: Enhanced Dexterity Minimally Invasive Surgical Platform

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）一期项目旨在建立一种新型微创手术（MIS）技术平台的可行性，该平台通过低成本的机械设计提供增强的灵活性，直观的控制和自然的力反馈。MIS是通过病人身上的小孔进行的。以最大限度地减少患者的创伤、失血和恢复时间，通常包括缝合、打结和精细解剖，所有这些都需要提高手术工具的灵活性。现有的MIS工具技术提供了可负担性和功能性之间的选择。目前可用的低成本机械（或非机器人）工具要么缺乏必要的灵活性，要么操作起来反直觉，导致外科医生疲劳和大量的培训要求。机器人工具提供了非凡的灵活性和直观的控制，但非常昂贵，超出了许多医疗保健提供者和患者的承受能力。提出的MIS技术通过新颖的前臂安装工具配置和创新的平行运动虚拟中心机构克服了这种可负担性与功能之间的权衡，使工具输入关节与外科医生的关节一致。年代的手腕。这导致了外科医生自然而直观的动作传递。通过低成本的设计，不需要任何传感器、执行器或计算机控制，将手移动到工具末端执行器。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将通过拟议医疗设备技术的发展和商业化来实现，这将使外科医生能够进行复杂的MIS手术，如结肠切除术和子宫切除术，这些手术需要缝合、打结和精细解剖，只需最少的培训，成本仅为手术机器人的一小部分。此外，该技术可适用于任何类型的末端执行器（针钳、钳子、钳子、剪刀、牵开器等），因此可作为各种手术的平台技术。鉴于这种多功能性和减少的成本和培训负担，建议将使管理信息系统得到更广泛的采用，从而使社会上更大一部分人受益。除了对患者有好处之外，MIS还可以缩短住院时间，减少术后止痛药，降低术后并发症的风险，从而节省医疗成本。因此，MIS已经影响了几个外科专科，包括肥胖、胃肠、泌尿、腹部、妇科和心胸外科。尽管在美国每年进行数百万次MIS手术，但由于目前手术机器人的高成本、传统手持仪器的培训负担以及某些MIS手术的复杂性，广泛采用迄今为止受到限制。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to establish the feasibility of a novel minimally invasive surgery (MIS) technology platform that provides enhanced dexterity, intuitive control, and natural force feedback via a low-cost mechanical design. MIS is performed through small holes on a patient?s body to minimize patient trauma, blood loss, and recovery time, and it generally involves suturing, knot-tying, and fine dissection, all of which require enhanced dexterity in the surgical tool. Existing MIS tool technology offers a choice between affordability and functionality. Currently available low-cost mechanical (or non-robotic) tools either lack the necessary dexterity or are counter-intuitive to operate, resulting in surgeon fatigue and significant training requirements. Robotic tools provide exceptional dexterity and intuitive control, but are very expensive and beyond the reach of many healthcare providers and patients. The proposed MIS technology overcomes this affordability versus functionality tradeoff via a novel forearm mounted tool configuration and innovations in parallel-kinematic virtual center mechanisms that makes the tool input joint coincident with the surgeon?s wrist. This results in a natural and intuitive motion transmission from the surgeon?s hand to the tool end-effector via a low-cost design that does not require any sensors, actuators, or computer-control. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be realized by the development and commercialization of the proposed medical device technology will enable surgeons to perform complex MIS procedures such as colectomy and hysterectomy that require suturing, knot-tying and fine dissection with minimal training and at a fraction of the cost of surgical robots. Moreover, the proposed technology can be adapted to any style of end-effector (needle driver, forceps, graspers, scissors, retractor, etc.) and therefore serves as a platform technology for all kinds of surgeries. Given this versatility and reduced cost and training burden, the proposed will enable a wider adoption of MIS, thereby bringing its benefits to a larger portion of the society. In addition to benefits to the patient, MIS also provides healthcare cost-savings due to shorter hospital stays, less postsurgical pain medication, and reduced risk of post-operative complications. Consequently, MIS has impacted several surgical specialties, including bariatric, gastrointestinal, urologic, abdominal, gynecological, and cardiothoracic. Although millions of MIS procedures are performed in the US each year, wider adoption has been limited so far by the high cost of current surgical robots, the training burden of traditional hand-held instruments, and the complexity of certain MIS procedures.