Design and Development of a wearable device for remote control of Surgical Robot

Availability of expert surgeons in every town is not practicable. Also, there are sometimes hazardous circumstances which are harmful to a human surgeon, in which it is more appropriate for a surgeon to perform surgery at a distance from the patient. Examples include operating on patients with conta

Project Title

Design and Development of a wearable device for remote control of Surgical Robot

Project Area of Specialization

Biomedical Engineering

Project Summary

Availability of expert surgeons in every town is not practicable. Also, there are sometimes hazardous circumstances which are harmful to a human surgeon, in which it is more appropriate for a surgeon to perform surgery at a distance from the patient. Examples include operating on patients with contagious diseases or operating in radioactive environments. In such situations, a robot surgeon is desirable. Although intelligent robot systems have been developed for minimally invasive surgery like laparoscopy, a fully autonomous robot is not possible for all kinds of surgery. A robotic manipulator with manual control by a human surgeon ideally at a remote place is a viable solution. Systems have been developed that allow the doctor to use a remote control with precise position control systems to control a robot manipulator at a distance. However, these systems lack “feel” of touch that a surgeon has in the traditional surgery.

A system closer to reality requires a virtual environment in which the robotic manipulator imitates the movements made by the human surgeon at a remote place. Such an arrangement calls for haptic feedback from the robot hand to the surgeons’ hand.

This project aims at design and development of a small-scale soft robotic hand having full capability of movements like abduction/adduction, flexion/extension as well as opposition and a wearable glove with sensors and haptic feedback to control the developed soft-robotic hand. The glove would use flex sensors to sense the finger positions and piezo-electric transducers to give a “feel” of touch to the distant surgeon. One of the gloves is supposed to be worn by a surgeon and one by the robot hand. The glove on the robot hand would allow it to imitate the hand movements of the distant human surgeon. The actuators on robot hand are supposed to be actuated by the difference between the surgeon’s hand and the robot hand. The piezo-electric transducers on robot glove would generate an electric potential upon touching an object, which would be transmitted back to the piezo-electric transducers on the surgeon’s hand to let him feel the touch.

However, it should be noted that this project will not include the development of a virtual environment. Although this project implementation will include TCP/IP based computer-computer communication, the surgeon will be physically close to the frog and will be watching it from proximity instead of in a virtual environment.

Project Objectives

Following are the objectives to be achieved:

1. To develop a robotic manipulator with at least 17 degrees of freedom.
2. To develop a pair of right-hand haptic gloves.
3. To develop hardware and software of the computer interface for the gloves.
4. To perform dissection of a frog.

Project Implementation Method

As this project is based on designing and developing a small-scale soft robotic hand having full capability of movements, and a wearable glove with sensors and haptic feedback to control the developed soft-robotic hand. We need to make the robot pick the scissors, hold the scissors, position these properly, and then to move them properly. For achieving these tasks first step will be making a hand with four fingers and a thumb. Then next step will be to connect that hand with a wrist. After that, each finger, the thumb, and the wrist will be motorized. Then suitable glove will be taken, and flex sensors and touch sensors will be placed on the glove, which will be worn by the user. After that similar glove will be worn by the robotic manipulator. Then a circuitry that connects with the gloves to operate motors and read data from the sensors, performs ADC, and transmits it to a central computer will be made. Finally, computer programs will be written for controlling the motors according to the data coming from the transducers and sensors.

Benefits of the Project

Some of the benefits that can be achieved from the implementation of this project are:

• It offers a solution to the problem faced by surgeons while operating patients with contagious diseases or operating in radioactive environments.
• The surgeon will be able to feel the touch that a surgeon has in the traditional surgery.
• It let the Surgeon perform his task with miniature incisions precisely that hurts and terrify patients slighter.

As several harmful events for a human surgeon occur, in which surgery performed at a distance from the patient is more appropriate for a surgeon. For Example, operating patients suffering from COVID-19 or operating in radioactive environments. In such situations, this project can be helpful for the surgeon to perform surgery from some distance along with the feel of touch that a surgeon has in the traditional surgery.

In this way surgeons will be safe as well as patients can be treated properly.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

At the end of this project, I expect to have developed robotic manipulator with at least 17 degrees of freedom and a pair of right-hand haptic gloves with hardware and software of the computer interface for the gloves that will be ready for dissection of a frog.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Medical

Other Industries

Education , IT , Health , Telecommunication

Core Technology

Robotics

Other Technologies

Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented & Virtual Reality, Robotics, Wearables and Implantables

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Quality Education, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Partnerships to achieve the Goal

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com