Mechatronic Devices for Next-Generation Minimally Invasive Surgery

微创手术是通过小切口进行的，通常直径为5-12毫米。虽然对患者有利，但受限的准入给临床医生带来了许多挑战。其中一个主要问题是无法以类似的开放手术可能的方式操纵和感觉内部结构。这使得学习变得困难，并导致更多的错误。*从长远来看，我的研究计划的目标是引入可以改进微创手术实践的技术，着眼于使整个或部分程序能够自主执行。在朝着这一目标努力的过程中，我工作的短期目标旨在通过解决三个相辅相成的领域来提高前沿微创外科实践的安全性和有效性：*1.提高手术器械测量组织特征和相互作用力的能力。这包括开发新的传感器，优化传感器放置的方法，以及将传感器无缝集成到手术器械中的技术。这些信息对于提供工具对其所处环境的“感知”至关重要。*2.开发技术来使用术中感觉信息，包括来自感应化器械的视频和数据，以实时识别关键解剖特征、器械动作和手术子任务。有了在整个手术计划的背景下确定正在发生的事情的能力，就有可能指导行动并减少错误。*3.设计工具和控制方法，以实现能够以智能方式反应的智能手术器械。由此产生的手持式仪器和手术机器人系统将能够积极防止手术错误的发生。*这项研究计划建立在我之前在医疗机电设备和主动视觉系统的设计、开发和测试方面的经验基础上。这项研究的结果将推动机电一体化系统的临床应用。由此产生的技术预计将对加拿大医疗保健和医疗器械行业具有特别重要的意义，具有巨大的市场潜力。这项研究提供的改进的感知和操作能力将使患者和各种外科手术的从业者受益，也可能应用于培训、诊断和治疗的设备和系统。**

Minimally invasive procedures are performed though small incisions, typically 5-12 mm across. While benefical to patients, the restricted access introduces many challenges for clinicians. One of the major problems is the inability to manipulate and feel internal structures in the same manner that is possible for a comparable open procedure. This makes learning difficult and leads to a higher number of errors.****Over the long term, the objective of my research program is to introduce technologies that can improve the practice of minimally invasive surgery, with an eye toward enabling procedures, in whole or in part, to be performed autonomously. In working toward this goal, the short-term objectives of my work aim to improve the safety and efficacy of leading-edge minimally invasive surgical practice by addressing three complementary areas:***1. Improving the ability of surgical instruments to measure tissue characteristics and interaction forces. This includes the development of new sensors, methods for optimal sensor placement and techniques for seamlessly integrating sensors into surgical instruments. This information is critical to providing tools with "awareness" of their environment.***2. Developing techniques to use intraoperative sensory information, including video and data from sensorized instruments, to identify key anatomical features, instrument actions and surgical subtasks in real time. With the ability to determine what is happening, in the context of an overall surgical plan, it becomes possible to direct actions and mitigate errors.***3. Designing tools and control methods to realize smart surgical instruments that can react in an intelligent manner. The resulting handheld instruments and surgical robotic systems will be able to actively prevent surgical errors from occurring.***This research program builds on my previous experience with the design, development and testing of medical mechatronic devices and active vision systems. The results of the proposed research will advance the field of mechatronic systems for clinical applications. The resulting technologies are expected to be of particular significance to the Canadian health care and medical device industries, with a huge market potential. The improved sensing and manipulation capabilities afforded by this research will benefit patients and practitioners of a wide range of surgical procedures and may also be applied to devices and systems for training, diagnosis and therapy.**