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

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目具有更广泛的影响/商业潜力，是一种新颖的产品，可确保在腹腔镜手术过程中通过术中范围进行适当的可视化。全世界每年进行1300万例腹腔镜手术。外科医生需要适当地观察手术部位，这需要不断地擦拭晶状体，重新插入镜，重新定位手术部位，然后继续手术。这种视觉上的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，以恢复手术视野。外科医生平均每小时重复这一过程6次，占手术时间的近1/3。仅在美国，这种时间延迟估计每年就会造成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。该SBIR第一阶段项目将开发一种具有多个自由度的新颖、灵活的微机械机制的操作原型。该设备集成了灵活和一致的机构与擦拭刀片，以实现实时擦拭手术范围和端口。这项技术使外科医生能够快速地在术中重新启用患者的腹腔镜视力。该项目的技术挑战包括开发一个计算工程模型，以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。计算工程模型将用于设计和开发几种可制造的原型，这些原型将在几种现有的腹腔镜上进行测试和验证。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.