3D Camera-based Digital Image Correlation for Tissue Characterisation in Robot-Assisted Surgery

这是一个机械工程博士研究项目。机器人辅助手术的日益广泛的应用提高了在机器人系统的帮助下改进微创精确手术的可能性。由于手术的“远程”性质，外科医生失去了触觉的直接感觉，并且通常依赖于视觉线索来确定最佳组织张力，这是基本手术任务（例如组织切除）的关键。这个博士项目将建立一个新的技术框架，基于3D相机的图像处理和注册的组织识别和表征机器人辅助手术。使用机器人系统获取的摄像机数据，并获得手术部位的高清立体视图，博士候选人将开发图像处理和配准的新技术，以准实时方式重建手术部位的几何形状，具有高水平的准确性和鲁棒性。结果将使用图像叠加等方法反馈给机器人系统，为外科医生提供所获得的基本信息。

This is a PhD research project in Mechanical Engineering. The growing application of robot-assisted surgery has raised the possibility of improved minimally-invasive precision surgery with the help of robotic systems. Due to the 'remote' nature of the operation, surgeon loses direct sense of tactile feel and often relies on visual cues to determine optimal tissue tension, which is the key to essential surgical tasks such as tissue resection. This PhD project will establish a novel technical framework of 3D camera-based image processing and registration for tissue identification and characterisation in robot-assisted surgery. Using the camera data acquired by the robotic system with a high-definition stereoscopic view of the surgical site, the PhD candidate will develop novel techniques of image processing and registration to reconstruct geometries of the surgical site, in a quasi-real-time fashion, with high levels of accuracy and robustness. The results will be fed back to the robotic systems using methods such as image overlay to provide the surgeons with essential information obtained.