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Topic Name: The mobile surgical robot
Category: Robotics
Research persons: Blake Hannaford, Ph.D.,Jacob Rosen, Ph.D.
Location: Biorobotics Laboratory,Department of Electrical Engineering,University of Washington,University of Washington,Seattle, WA 98195-2500, United States
Details
This week Raven, the mobile surgical robot
developed by the University of Washington, leaves for the depths of the Atlantic
Ocean. The UW will participate in NASA's mission to submerge a surgeon and
robotic gear in a simulated spaceship. For 12 days the surgical robotic system
will be put through its paces in an underwater capsule that mimics conditions in
a space shuttle. Surgeons back in Seattle will guide its movements. The 12th
NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations test will take place May 7 to 18 off
the coast of Florida. The robot leaves Seattle on Friday. During the mission,
Raven will operate in the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory, a submarine-like
research pod about 60 feet underwater. This mission will test current technology
for sending remote-controlled surgical robotic systems into space.
During the
mission, four crew members will assemble the robot and perform experiments. The
two larger-than-life black robotic arms will use surgical instruments to suture
a piece of rubber and move blocks from one spindle to another on what looks like
a delicate children's toy. The brains behind the robot's movements will be three
surgeons in front of a computer screen in Seattle: Drs. Mika Sinanan and Andrew
Wright of the University of Washington's Medical Center, and Dr. Thomas Lendvay
of Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.
Instructions
will travel over a commercial Internet connection from Seattle to Key Largo,
Fla., then via a special wireless connection from there to a buoy, and
finally via cable underwater. Images of the simulated patient will travel back
over the same network.
Raven was built
over the past five years in the UW's
BioRobotics Lab,
co-directed by professor Blake Hannaford and research associate professor Jacob
Rosen in the department of electrical engineering, with partners in the UW's
department of surgery. The da Vinci surgical robot, which is used at the UW and
elsewhere, weighs nearly a half-ton. Raven weighs only 50 pounds.
Lightweight,
mobile robots could travel to wounded soldiers on the battlefield to treat
combat injuries. Surgical robotic systems also could be used in disaster areas
so doctors worldwide could perform emergency procedures. The robots could even
travel to remote areas in the developing world so local doctors could get help
on difficult procedures. NASA will test the robot's suitability for a mission to
space, where it could perform emergency surgery without requiring a surgeon to
be onboard.
Raven went on
its first road trip last summer to California's Simi Valley. Researchers
installed an operating-room tent in gusting winds and temperatures nearing 100
degrees F (40 C), and hooked the equipment up to gasoline-powered generators.
Surgeons completed the first field test communicating with the operating tent
using an unmanned aircraft equipped with a wireless transmitter.
The NASA mission
poses new challenges. Researchers shrank the computers and power supplies that
support the robot so they can be carried in dive bags by technical scuba divers
and fit into the limited space. Most importantly, the engineers wrote an
instructional manual so crew members could reassemble the robot and troubleshoot
any problems they encounter.
"When you build
a technology as a lab prototype, it takes someone with a Ph.D. six weeks to put
it together," Hannaford said. "If you build something for the field, it's got to
be repairable, modular and robust."
Once everything
is installed in the undersea lab the crew will be alone with the robot. Crew
members can communicate by phone with the ground team but they will have to
operate the robot and fix any problems on their own. The four-person crew
includes research collaborator and surgeon Dr. Tim Broderick of the University
of Cincinnati, who will observe the robot's movements and determine its
suitability for space travel. Two NASA astronauts and a NASA flight surgeon
complete the crew.
Also traveling
to the research pod is the M7, a surgical robot developed by SRI International
in Menlo Park, Calif. These two robots are the only existing prototypes for a
mobile surgical robot, Hannaford said. Currently both robots are research
projects and are not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use on
humans.
In Images:
1.Raven, the
mobile surgical robot developed in the UW's BioRobotics Lab, weighs about 50
pounds. Its nimble appendages can suture wounds and perform minimally invasive
surgeries.
2.The surgical
robot Raven, astronauts and surgeons will spend 12 days in the Aquarius habitat,
above. The 400-square-foot underwater habitat is used by NASA for space
simulation and training.
About
researchers:
Co-directed by professor Blake Hannaford and
research associate professor Jacob Rosen in the department of electrical
engineering,
Blake Hannaford, Ph.D.
BioRobotics Lab Director
Research Fields : Haptics, Surgical Technology
Office : EECSE Building M434
Phone : 206-543-2197
Fax: 206-221-5264
e-mail :
blake@u.washington.edu
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EE Dep. Web Page |
Personal Web Page |
Jacob Rosen, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor
Research Fields : Surgical Robotics, Wearable Robotics (Exoskeleton), Human
Machine Interfaces
Office / Lab: EECSE Building M410 / 455
Phone : 206-685-1600
Fax : 206-221-5264
e-mail :
rosen@u.washington.edu
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EE Dep. Web Page |
Personal Web Page |
Funded:
The UW's research is funded by grants from the
U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology
Research Center, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency and the Department
of Defense's Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program.
 
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