HEARTSURGERYROBOT · Development of a Robotic Surgery System for Beating Heart Surgery

The purpose of the present study is the development of a robotic surgery system for beating heart surgery. Specifically, the developed surgery robot will be used for off-pump Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery, which means that the surgery is done while the heart is still beating instead of using a cardiopulmonary bypass machine and stopping the heart to perform the surgery. The robotic system developed in this project will actively track and cancel the relative motion between the heart surface and the surgical tools that are attached to the robotic manipulators, dynamically stabilizing the heart for the operation. In this scheme, the surgeon views a stabilized view of the heart on a video display with images provided by a camera mounted on the robotic arm, allowing CABG surgeries to be performed on a beating heart with technical perfection equal to traditional on-pump surgeries.The proposed surgical system, unlike the ones available, is a small, light weight, high bandwidth, 6-DOF system that is capable of tracking the highly dynamic heart motion, and dexterous enough to perform surgical manipulations.In order to develop the proposed robotic system, the research will focus on the following aims:1. Designing and prototyping dexterous robotic instruments,2. Developing the sensing system required for monitoring biological signals, tracking heart motion, and force feedback to the surgeon,3. Developing intelligent control algorithms for model based active motion compensation, and4. Developing an immersive telepresence interface for the surgeon.