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

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是一种新产品，用于确保在腹腔镜手术中通过术中范围进行适当的可视化。在全球范围内，每年有1300万例腹腔镜手术。外科医生需要正确地显示手术部位，这需要不断擦拭晶状体，重新插入镜片，重新定位手术部位，然后恢复手术。这种可视化的困难导致需要暂时停止手术，并且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一过程6次，占手术时间的近三分之一。据估计，这一时间延迟仅在美国每年就导致33.6万小时的手术室程序时间损失和12.5亿美元的生产力损失。这个SBIR第一阶段项目将开发一种新型的、灵活的、多自由度的微机械机构的操作原型。该设备将灵活且符合要求的机构与擦拭刀片集成在一起，能够实时擦拭手术范围和端口。这项技术使外科医生能够在手术中快速地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种计算工程模型，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个可制造的原型，这些原型将通过现有的几个可用的腹腔镜进行测试和验证。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.