SBIR Phase I: Optimization of a Novel Compliant Mechanisms-Based Laparoscope Cleaning Device

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I期项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是一种新型产品，用于确保腹腔镜手术期间通过术中内窥镜进行适当可视化。全世界每年进行1300万例腹腔镜手术。外科医生需要对手术部位进行适当的观察，这需要不断地擦拭透镜、重新插入内窥镜、重新定位手术部位，然后重新开始手术。这种可视化困难导致需要暂时停止手术，并可能失去手术区域的关键焦点，以便恢复手术视野。外科医生平均每小时重复这个过程6次，占手术时间的近1/3。仅在美国，这种时间延迟每年就导致估计336，000小时的手术室手术时间损失和12.5亿美元的生产力损失。SBIR第1阶段项目将开发一种新颖的、灵活的、具有多个自由度的微机械机构的操作原型。该器械将柔性和顺应性机制与擦拭刀片集成在一起，以实现手术镜和端口的真实的时间擦拭。该技术使外科医生能够在术中快速重新启用患者体内的腹腔镜视野。该项目的技术挑战包括开发一个计算工程模型，优化用户对离轴刚度、力响应和应力的控制。 团队还需要确保解决方案在整个手术过程中具有足够的疲劳寿命和可预测的机械响应。计算工程模型将被用于设计和开发几个可制造的原型，这将是测试和验证与几个目前可用的腹腔镜。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is a novel product for ensuring proper visualization through intraoperative scopes during laparoscopic procedures. Worldwide, 13 million laparoscopic surgeries are performed each year. Surgeons require proper visualization of the operating site which entails continually wiping the lens, reinserting the scope, relocating the surgical site, and then resuming the surgery. This difficulty in visualization results in the need to temporarily halt the operation and potentially lose critical focus of the surgical area in order to restore the surgical field of view. Surgeons repeat this process an average of six times per hour, accounting for nearly 1/3 of the operating time. This time delay results in an estimated loss of 336,000 hours of operating room procedure time and $1.25 billion in productivity losses in the United States alone each year.This SBIR Phase 1 project will develop operating prototypes of a novel, flexible, micro-mechanical mechanism with multiple degrees of freedom. The device integrates flexible and conforming mechanisms with a wiping blade to enable real time wiping of surgical scopes and ports. This technology enables surgeons to quickly and intraoperatively re-enable laparoscope vision within the patient. The technical challenges of the project include the development of a computational engineering model that optimizes user control of off-axis stiffness, force response, and stress. The team will also need to ensure the solution has sufficient fatigue life and predictable mechanical response throughout the duration of the procedure. Computational engineering models will be used to design and develop several manufacturable prototypes, which will be tested and validated with several currently available laparoscopes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.