| There are many benefits
to using remotely controlled robotic tools while performing surgery. They
are often less invasive than manual surgery, meaning a faster recovery
for patients, and they also have applications for operating on patients
in remote locations (such as on battlefields or in space). When using these
tools, a surgeon operates a joystick-like device that sends instructions
directly to a tool located at or in the patient’s body. Based on the surgeon’s
remote movements, the remote tools make and close incisions and move surgical
instruments, allowing surgeons to be more precise.
Currently, a problem with
using robotic tools is the lack of tactile, or haptic, feedback for the
surgeon, because they are not using their hands to operate on the patient
directly. A technology allowing surgeons to receive more feedback from
remotely controlled robotic tools would greatly enhance surgical procedures
as well as the acceptance of teleoperated surgical-assistant robots by
practitioners.
To help solve this problem,
researchers at the Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Computer-Integrated
Surgical Systems and Technology (CISST), at Johns Hopkins University, have
developed new feedback methods that allow a surgeon to physically feel
surgical-environment forces relayed from his or her robotic tools, while
eliminating undesired resistant forces of the robotic manipulator itself
(such as inertia and friction). With conventional robotic controllers,
surgeons receive both kinds of information from the manipulator, making
detailed surgical procedures and decisions difficult. The new methods,
developed by Dr. Allison Okamura and Dr. Mohsen Mahvash, mean that surgeons
receive feedback only from the patient’s body.
Through a collaboration with
Intuitive Surgical, Inc., the new haptic-feedback methods have been tested
on a version of the da Vinci Surgical System, using customized software
and hardware developed at the CISST. |
