Smart Surgical Tools
Robotic technology in surgical therapy has demonstrated accurate and consistent tool trajectories in contrast with manual intervention. It has been a great achievement to deploy these machines in the operating theatre in close proximity to patients and staff and now commercial systems are available.
Our research focuses on controlling tool-point interaction precisely in small tissue targets. Hand supported devices are within this scope. Unique autonomous sensor controlled processes discriminate different tool working conditions/ tissues and the state of the tool-point/ tissue interaction and behaviour. This is used to enhance control by the surgeon in real-time relative to tissue position and produces consistent results. The devices require little set-up time and other infrastructure in the operating room. This approach offers great benefit as small tissue targets are often attempted working through difficult access.
The solutions investigated are generic.
