Sheila Russo1
Boston University1
Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) procedures, such as interventional flexible endoscopy, present several advantages to traditional surgery including shorter recovery time, less trauma, and lower risk of infections. However, MIS is more technically demanding for the surgeon, entailing limitations in visual (limited field of view, low spatial and chromatic resolution), motor (dexterity), and haptic (reduced perception and tactile information) functionalities. <br/>This talk will highlight our recent work in the design, materials, manufacturing, and development of soft sensing technologies and wearable, textile-based, haptic interfaces that aim at restoring and amplifying sensor and haptic feedback directly to the surgeon’s hand to facilitate navigation and improve safety during colonoscopy. <br/>First, a new class of soft surgical robots (i.e., soft reactive skins) will be discussed. Soft reactive skins are thin, conformable robots with distributed sensing and actuation, that can be wrapped around traditional medical instrumentation to augment their functionalities. Our research group (the Material Robotics lab at Boston University) has explored these devices to sense and react to inputs like contact force, bending, shape, and bleeding during colonoscopy. <br/>Second, our progress on soft robotic wearable haptic interfaces will be discussed. The talk will highlight our efforts in materials and manufacturing towards an ergonomic, lightweight, flexible, and comfortable-to-wear design. Through a user study, we assessed the mental workload and benefits of the haptic interface in a simulated colonoscopy scenario. The device is transparent while performing tasks, and could be worn and removed with minimal to no assistance.<br/>The talk will conclude by discussing potential future applications of soft surgical robots and soft haptics in other minimally invasive surgical scenarios, like interventional bronchoscopy and endoscopic brain surgery.