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General Research Interests: Medical Robotics and Haptics
Medical devices have enthralled me from a young age. Unfortunately, I spent a good deal of time in
the hospital during my youth, but I was lucky enough to discover one of my passions. The ability to
create technology that saves lives and reduces patient suffering is an awesome motivator. And robots...
they're just cool.
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Current Projects:
Haptic Asymmetries in Telemanipulators
Problem:
Ideally, for every degree of positioning of a manipulator, the manipulator would be able to
provide haptic feedback to the operator so that he or she can sense the forces in which they are applying.
However, providing haptic feedback in every direction can be costly and weight prohibitive due to the
motor cost and weight.
Possible Solution:
Perhaps every degree of haptic feedback is not necessary for operators. That is, perhaps an asymmetry between
the number of positioning sensors and haptic actuators does not significantly affect operator performance.
Test-bed:
To test different asymmetric conditions, I have built a four degree of freedom telemanipulating system using two
PHANTOM haptic devices and two gripper mechanisms. By manipulating the number of degrees of haptic feedback to
the user, we can test various asymmetric conditions.
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Force Feedback for surgical systems
In a collaborative effort with Intuitive Surgical, we are in the process of configuring a da Vinci
surgical system in our laboratory to run with full force sensing and haptic feedback to the operator.
Click here to see a video of our research system in action.
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JHU research da Vinci at Haptics Symposium 2006
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Virtual Fixtures for surgical systems
In a collaborative effort with Intuitive Surgical, we are in the process of testing virtual fixtures on
a commericial da Vinci surgical system. For more on what virtual fixtures are see this paper.
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Video of our research da Vinci with virtual fixture
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Tactile slip display for robotic systems
Problem:
Several studies have presented tactile sensors for slip detection in robotic systems. While these slip senors
can provide useful information to teleoperative users about the environment they are working in (i.e. when
they are about to drop an object), few have been able to design a device to accurately present the sensation
of sliding over a surface to a teleoperative user.
Solution:
A two degree-of-freedom tactile slip display was designed that can be easy added to most kinesthetic haptic devices
to create a robotic system with the ability to present both shape and slip information to users. In the device
(pictured below), a ball is driven by two independent motors. As the ball spins, it slides against the
user's finger to provide the sensation of slip. As a demonstation of the possible benefits of a tactile slip display,
we developed a virtual environment consisting of a virtual piece of paper sliding across a hard tabletop (see picture
below). By comparing results of a paper manipulation task with and without slip feedback, the benefits of a tactile
slip display have been shown.
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Past Projects:
Objective Surgical Skill Evaluation
Quantifying the proficiency of surgical skill to ensure
a standard level of technical care in surgery.
Problem:
Laparoscopic surgical proficiency requires tremendous time and commitment on the part of the novice surgeon.
It takes many years to become a proficient (expert) laparoscopic surgeon. While the skills needed to perform
successful laparoscopic surgery are difficult to learn, ultimate competency is even more difficult to define
and measure. Currently, no metric exists within the educational process to objectively determine when a
level of surgical proficiency has been achieved.
Possible Solution:
To accurately and fairly assess a learning physician's technical skills, an objective analysis method must be established.
This research focuses on obtaining objective methods of surgical skill assessment using kinematic and flight path analysis.
Test-bed:
The flight paths of surgeons' movements, velocity, and total task time can be obtained from robotics systems
like the da Vinci surgical system. We have found that these can be used to (objectively)
assess surgical skill.
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Surgical Instrument Design
Developing a more dexterous and ergonomic laparoscopic instrument
Problem:
Laparoscopic surgery requires surgeons to perform complex procedures using a standardized set of tools.
Most tools, including the common laparoscopic grasper, do not currently provide surgeons with comfortable,
intuitive control. Also, most tools lack a wrist-like mechanism to provide surgeons with the ability to perform
complex tasks with conventional laparoscopic surgery.
Possible Solution:
A new instrument can be developed that provides both enhanced surgical dexterity and comfort for the surgeon.
Status
Due to intellectual property constrants, limited details can be provided at this time, but feel free to view
the patent application.
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Example of poor positioning of laparoscopic graspers which causes stress on hands and wrists.
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