CAREER: Safe Continuum Robot Inside Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

该学院早期职业发展(Career)奖支持研究，以创造一种新的手术机器人类别，能够到达身体其他无法触及的区域，并执行复杂的程序，对健康组织的损害最小。实现这些新能力的两项主要技术创新是i)可连续变形的机器人本体，使用磁共振成像(MRI)进行监控；ii)形状控制和运动规划算法，即使对机器人及其周围环境的了解不完善，也可以进行精确的机动。该机器人由无磁性的嵌套滑动管组成，管的曲率由嵌入的肌腱控制，由气动执行器依次驱动。与高度灵活的结构相关的控制和规划方面的挑战将通过嵌入机器人身体中的特殊微型、MRI安全的跟踪标记以及接触感知、基于模型的形状和运动估计软件来解决。由该项目产生的机器人将在各种外科手术中提供更高的治疗精度、效率和安全性。相关设备也可用于工业应用，如对输油管道和喷气发动机进行无损检测。一项综合教育计划包括在佐治亚理工学院生物医学工程系试行两门新的生物医学机器人课程，在K-12、本科生、研究生和代表性不足的人群中培养外展活动，让资源不足地区的学生接触医疗机器人，并通过佐治亚理工学院每年举行的医疗机器人国际研讨会(ISMR)传播该项目的成果。四个互补和相互关联的推力支持该项目的总体目标，即促进连续手术机器人的最先进水平，包括无缝MRI兼容性。第一个推力是创建一种新型的气动、肌腱驱动的同心管连续体机器人，具有统一的建模和状态估计框架。第二个推力是执行器-空间电机控制和任务-空间机器人运动规划，以在存在不确定性和干扰的情况下完成精确的手术过程。第三个重点是利用具有生理代表性的模体对外科测试任务中的集成硬件和软件进行演示和系统级验证。第四个重点是一个综合的研究-教育基础设施，向不同的群体传播项目的结果和方法，重点是妇女、少数群体、代表性不足的社区和退伍军人。这一奖项反映了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。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports research to create a new class of surgical robots able to reach otherwise inaccessible areas of the body and perform complex procedures with minimal damage to healthy tissue. The two main technical innovations that enable these new capabilities are i) a continuously deformable robot body, monitored using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ii) shape control and motion planning algorithms that allow precise maneuvering despite imperfect knowledge of the robot and its surroundings. The robot is made from non-magnetic, nested sliding tubes, with the curvature of the tubes controlled by embedded tendons, driven in turn by pneumatic actuators. Challenges in control and planning associated with the highly flexible structure will be met with special miniaturized, MRI-safe, tracking markers embedded in the robot body, in combination with contact-aware, model-based, shape and motion estimation software. The robots resulting from this project will provide enhanced treatment accuracy, efficiency, and safety in a variety of surgical procedures. Related devices could also be used for industrial applications, such as non-destructive inspection of oil pipelines and jet engines. An integrated education plan includes piloting two new courses for the Biomedical Robotics curriculum in the Georgia Tech Biomedical Engineering Department, fostering outreach activities in K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and underrepresented populations, exposing students in under-resourced regions to medical robotics, and disseminating the results of the project through the International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR) held annually at Georgia Tech.Four complementary and interconnected thrusts support the overarching objective of this project, which is to advance the state-of-the-art in continuum surgical robots, including seamless MRI compatibility. The first thrust is to create a novel pneumatically powered, tendon-driven, concentric tube continuum robot with a unified modeling and state estimation framework. The second thrust is actuator-space motor control and task-space robot motion planning to accomplish precise surgical procedures in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances. The third thrust is demonstration and system-level validation of the integrated hardware and software on surgical test tasks with physiologically representative phantoms. The fourth thrust is an integrated research-education infrastructure, to disseminate the results and methods of the project to various groups, with an emphasis on women, minorities, under-represented communities, and veterans.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.