Intelligent Robotic Tools and Telepresence Environment for Off-Pump (Beating Heart) Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

该项目将开发智能机器人工具和远程呈现环境，用于进行非体外循环冠状动脉旁路移植术（CABG）手术。 在这种情况下，非体外循环CABG手术意味着手术在心脏仍在跳动时完成，而不是使用心肺转流机和停止心脏进行心脏手术。 尽管体外循环心脏直视手术在过去的30年里得到了改进，现在已经是一种常见而成功的手术，但它仍然是高度侵入性的，并且充满了潜在的并发症。 由于使用心肺转流机所造成的并发症，非体外循环下进行冠状动脉旁路移植术是非常可取的。 然而，由于技术限制，非体外循环CABG手术可能仅用于所有CABG手术的一小部分（约10%）。 智能机器人技术的应用有望成为非体外循环CABG手术的另一种上级方法。 该项目中将开发的智能遥控机器人工具将通过主动相对运动消除（ARMC）主动跟踪和消除手术器械与心脏之间的相对运动，从而使CABG手术能够在跳动的心脏上进行，其技术完美性与传统的泵手术相当。 研究的主要重点将是开发互补的传感系统，以及用于智能和基于模型的融合来自不同系统的信息以获得上级性能的算法，以及基于模型的置信度评估，以检测和处理心律和心律失常的变化。 将被研究的传感系统包括sonomicrometry，视觉，胡须，力/扭矩，和基于MEMS的惯性传感器。

This project will develop intelligent robotic tools and a telepresence environment for performing off-pump coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. In this context, off-pump CABG surgery means that the surgery is done while heart is still beating instead of using a cardiopulmonary bypass machine and stopping the heart to perform heart surgery. Although on-pump open heart surgery has been refined over the last 30 years and is now a common and successful procedure it remains highly invasive and fraught with potential complications. Due to the complications resulting from using cardiopulmonary bypass machine, performing CABG off-pump is highly desirable. However, off-pump CABG surgery can be potentially performed for only a small proportion (~10%) of all CABG surgeries due to technological limitations. Use of intelligent robotics technology promises an alternative and superior way of performing off-pump CABG surgery. The intelligent telerobotic tools that will be developed in this project will actively track and cancel the relative motion between the surgical instruments and the heart by Active Relative Motion Cancelling (ARMC), allowing CABG surgeries to be performed on a beating heart with technical perfection equal to traditional on pump procedures. A major focus of the research will be on developing complementary sensing systems, and algorithms for intelligent and model based fusing of information supplied form different systems for superior performance, and model based confidence evaluation to detect and handle variations in heart rhythm and arrythmias. The sensory systems that will be studied include sonomicrometry, vision, whisker, force/torque, and MEMS based inertia sensors.