CRII:SCH:Human-in-the-loop Design and Control of Handheld Robotic Instruments for Laparoscopic Surgery

高质量、负担得起的外科护理应该广泛提供，但可获得性往往在很大程度上取决于环境因素。例如，昂贵设备和专业外科医生的基础设施可能不存在于偏远环境中，包括乡村医院、前线和太空飞行。虽然已经对开发大规模机器人辅助的微创外科系统进行了大量研究，但商业系统和训练有素的外科医生都很昂贵，而且资源有限。该项目专注于开发成本较低的手持机器人设备，将直接人工操作员的优势与机器人的精确度和灵活性结合起来。这些手持机器人将通过改善医疗服务不足患者的健康、福祉和护理标准，在医疗领域产生广泛影响。此外，通过这项研究发现的人在环路设计和控制的基本原则将有助于指导医疗保健、制造和国防等其他领域的新设备的创建。该项目旨在通过外展计划、公共实验室参观、开发新的实践课程以及指导未被充分代表的学生来扩大对工程学的参与。为了创造手持机器人设备，该项目将通过三个主要技术组件采用以人为中心的方法进行设计和控制。首先，将开发一个手持设备的模型，该模型结合了人类手的动力学，以及手和手臂中各种肌肉群的疲劳模型。这些模型将有助于为设备设计提供参考。其次，将评估不同策略的效率和准确性，这些策略既用于操控乐器，也用于将手的运动映射到乐器的运动。第三，灵活的应变传感器将用于测量关键任务的力信息，然后将以方向提示的形式使用触觉反馈显示给操作员。将测量最佳反馈参数，以及触觉反馈在提高任务绩效方面的有效性。通过开发以人为中心的设计方法，这项工作将扩大我们对远程机器人以外的机器人类别的人-机器人交互的理解，并可以为创造具有手术和医疗以外应用的新机器人提供指导原则。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。

High-quality, affordable surgical care should be widely available, yet availability often depends largely on environmental factors. For example, the infrastructure for expensive equipment and expert surgeons may not exist in remote environments, including rural hospitals, battlefronts and space flights. While there has been significant research into the development of large-scale robot- assisted minimally invasive surgical systems, commercial systems and trained surgeons are both expensive as well as limited resources. This project focuses on developing lower-cost, handheld robotic devices that combine the strengths of direct human-operators with the precision and dexterity of robots. These handheld robots will have broad impact in the medical field, by improving the health, well-being, and standard of care for underserved patients. In addition, the fundamental principles of human-in-the-loop design and control discovered through this research will help guide the creation of new devices in other areas of healthcare, manufacturing, and defense. This project aims to broaden participation in engineering through outreach programs, public lab tours, the development of a new hands-on course, and the mentoring of underrepresented students.In order to create handheld robotic devices, this project will take a human-focused approach to design and control through three main technical components. First, a model of the handheld device that incorporates the dynamics of the human hand, along with fatigue models for various muscle groups in the hands and arms will be developed. These models will help inform the device design. Second, the efficiency and accuracy of different strategies for both steering the instrument, as well as for mapping hand movement to instrument movement, will be evaluated. Third, flexible strain sensors will be incorporated for measuring task-critical force information that will then be displayed to the operator using haptic feedback in the form of directional cues. The optimal feedback parameters, along with the effectiveness of haptic feedback in improving task performance, will be measured. By developing a human-focused design approach, this work will expand our understanding of human-robot interactions for classes of robots beyond telerobots and can provide guiding principles for creating new robots with applications beyond surgery and healthcare.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.