CAREER: Safe and Transformative Robotic Intervention through Dynamic Elastic Structures (STRIDES)

机器人设备目前正在医疗应用中使用，但它们的普及受到缺乏能力的阻碍。该项目旨在通过提高柔性机器人和医疗设备的能力来改变医疗干预的安全性和有效性。该项目旨在创建新的数学模型，以更好地理解柔性机器人的行为，并开发创新的机器人设备，以提高它们的覆盖范围、精度、智能和安全性。该项目将与医疗专业人员合作，利用这些结果开发用于结肠癌微创手术切除和上肢康复的机器人系统。这项研究从根本上与一项教育计划联系在一起，该计划包括初中和高中的工程推广，以及本科生的研究和开放课件的开发。本研究沿着三个技术重点组织，在建模、设计和传感方面推进软连续机器人知识。首先，该项目将创建一个新的计算框架，用于扩展和统一现有模型的细长弹性物体的动力学。该方法是一种独特的高阶时间离散解Cosserat杆双曲型偏微分方程的方法，具有提高精度和效率的潜力。其次，本项目将分析和验证弹性机器人结构设计中的两个新概念：高强度，可变曲率机构和同心激动剂-拮抗剂弹性驱动。这些概念旨在解决连续体机器人设计中运动范围，强度和紧凑性的权衡。第三，正在开发和测试基于形状的分布式力传感和弹性物体弹性稳定性评估的新算法方法。该研究计划的最终目标是在系统层面推进机器人医疗干预的知识，以实现微创机器人手术和机器人辅助康复。

Robotic devices are currently being used in medical applications, but their prevalence is hindered by lack of capability. This project seeks to transform the safety and effectiveness of medical interventions by advancing the capabilities of flexible robots and medical devices. The project aims to create new mathematical models to better understand the behavior of flexible robots and to develop innovative robotic devices to increase their reach, precision, intelligence, and safety. In collaboration with medical professionals, the project will use these results to develop robotic systems for minimally invasive surgical removal of colon cancer and upper extremity rehabilitation. The research is fundamentally linked to an educational plan that includes middle- and high-school engineering outreach, as well as undergraduate research and open courseware development.This research is organized along three technical thrusts that advance soft and continuum robotics knowledge in modeling, design, and sensing. First, the project will create a novel computational framework for the dynamics of slender elastic objects that extends and unifies existing models. The proposed approach is a unique, high-order time-discretized solution method for the hyperbolic partial-differential equations of a Cosserat rod, which has potential for increased accuracy and efficiency. Second, this project will analyze and validate two novel concepts in the design of elastic robotic structures: high-strength, variable-curvature mechanisms, and concentric agonist-antagonist elastic actuation. These concepts are aimed at addressing the tradeoffs of range-of-motion, strength, and compactness in continuum robot design. Third, new algorithmic approaches for shape-based distributed force sensing and elastic stability assessment for elastic objects are being developed and tested. The research plan culminates in efforts to advance knowledge of robotic medical intervention at the system level for minimally-invasive robotic surgery and robot-assisted rehabilitation.