Towards collaborative and autonomous robotic minimally invasive surgery

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The objective of this research program is to develop human-machine interfaces and methods for collaborative and autonomous robotic surgery. Ever since robots have entered the operating room, surgery has gone through one of the greatest changes in the history of medicine. In teleoperated surgery, medical tools such as needles and catheters are operated remotely by a surgeon using a robotic arm. Recent advances gave rise to new trends in surgical robots spanning from intra-operative navigation of tools to the development of autonomous and semi-autonomous interventions, resulting in several open-ended research challenges. I propose to develop methods that allow for collaborative and fully autonomous robotic interventions that will combine two complementary research areas, namely ultrasound-based image guidance of surgical tools and human/machine cooperative teleoperation of surgical tasks.******Based on harmonic ultrasonic imaging, this research program will develop methods using nonlinear ultrasound to automatically and robustly track surgical tools inserted into human tissue. From the reaction of the tissue to the ultrasound signals at a given location, the mechanical properties of the tissue can be estimated. The sensation of directly touching and palpating the tissue can then be conveyed to the surgeon remotely using haptic feedback. This will also provide surgeons with safety barriers and guidance to increase the cognitive perception of the task being performed. I propose to combine trajectory planning and learning algorithms to teach a required action to the robot while compensating for dynamic changes in its environment. Potential applications include treatments for liver, prostate, kidney, pancreatic, brain, and bladder cancers, as well as cataracts surgery, and localized drug and implant delivery.******The proposed research will enable training of graduate and undergraduate students in key areas pertaining to the development of innovative state-of-the-art technologies for robotic surgery, which hold great promise for Canada.