Belen Estebanez

Three-layer control for active wrists in robotized laparoscopic surgery

This paper is focused on the motion control problem for a laparoscopic surgery robot assistant with an actuated wrist. These assistants may apply non-desired efforts to the patient abdomen. Therefore, this article proposes a control methodology based on three feedback levels, which have been defined as layers. These layers control different aspects of the endoscope movement. A low level assures the dynamic of the robot assistant is performed accordingly. The mid level emulates a passive wrist behavior to avoid any efforts over the abdomen. An external high level deals with the global movement planning. This architecture also makes easier to analyze the stability of the whole system. Finally, a real in-vitro experiment has been implemented with an industrial robot in order to contrast the validity of this article procedure.

Minimally invasive surgery maneuver recognition based on surgeon model

This paper proposes a new user interface based on a maneuver recognition system, which models the surgeon behavior. This interface includes three different modules: data acquisition and coding, training system and on-line recognition system. The aim is defined as recognizing the surgeon movements while is performing a surgical maneuver, by using a 3D surgical tool tracker. The obtained measurements are converted in to movement symbols by means of a Wavelet transform and a fuzzy clustering. These symbols are used both for training HMM and for recognizing the current maneuver. The system has been tested in some in-vitro experiments performing a fictitious surgical protocol.

Collaborative Human–Robot System for HALS Suture Procedures

Over the last years, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has continuously improved due to new techniques and technologies. One of these novel techniques is hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS), where the surgeon inserts one hand through a small incision inside the abdominal cavity of the patient. As this kind of intervention only allows the use of one laparoscopic tool, the surgeon requires a deep collaboration with the assistant in order to coordinate their movements for performing a surgical maneuver. In this way, the replacement of a human assistant with a robot system specifically designed for HALS must include a natural human-machine interface and the capability for taking autonomous decisions. These features need the implementation of a model of the surgical protocol, a system capable of recognizing the corresponding surgical gestures made by the surgeon, and an autonomous task system that assists the surgeon without his direct intervention. This paper is focused on the design of a collaborative surgical robot that implements all the features previously described. This robot assistant has been validated by means of in vitro laparoscopic sutures on a HALS scenario with CISOBOT, a two-arm robotic platform designed and developed at the University of Malaga.

Interfaz multimodal para un asistente robótico quirúrgico: uso de reconocimiento de maniobras quirúrgicas

This paper proposes a methodology for the recognition of surgical maneuvers in laparoscopic surgical interventions. The aim is to create an interface between the surgeon and a surgical robotic assistant for two arms of minimally invasive surgery procedures. The proposed interface receives information about the positioning of surgical tools of the surgeon using 3D sensors and the recognition system facilitates the current maneuver is completed. Therefore, the recognition system maneuvers that supports this interface requires a library of models of maneuvers to work. The models chosen to represent the surgical maneuvers are Hidden Markov Models. To validate the proposed methodology, we have developed a series of in-vitro experiments.

Towards a cognitive camera robotic assistant

This paper presents a cognitive architecture for a camera robotic assistant aimed at providing the proper camera view of the operating area in an autonomous way. The robotic system is composed of a miniature camera robot and an external robotic arm. The camera robot is introduced into the abdominal cavity and handled by the external robot through magnetic interaction. The cognitive architecture is provided with a long-term memory, which stores surgical knowledge, behaviors of the camera and learning mechanisms, and a short-term memory that recognizes the actual state of the task and triggers the corresponding camera behavior. To provide the proper camera view, each state of the task is characterized by a Focus of Attention (FOA), defined by an object, a position of the object in the image, and a zoom factor. The architecture also includes a learning mechanism to take into account particular preferences of surgeons concerning the viewpoint of the scene. The architecture proposed is validated through a set of in-vitro experiments.

Surgical tools pose estimation for a multimodal HMI of a surgical robotic assistant

The main objective of this paper is to minimize the occluded areas in order to recognize the navigation of the surgeons tools for a two-arm autonomous robotic system for laparoscopic procedures. This robotic assistant needs the tracking of the surgeons surgical gestures in order to recognize the current maneuver and to execute the automated tasks of the robot. The surgical tools pose estimation is carried out by a Multiple Extended Kalman Filter (MEKF), where the movement models of the surgical tools depend on the maneuver which is being developed. This information is obtained by a maneuvers recognition system which is a part of the multimodal human machine interface (HMI) of the robot. The method proposed for reducing shadows has been applied to three invitro maneuvers which appear in the majority of the surgical protocols. The experiments show the behavior of this method for different time intervals of the occlusions.

Maneuvers recognition system for laparoscopic surgery

The work presented in this paper is focused on movement recognition as a first step to achieve the automation of a two-arm-surgical-robotic-system in the laparoscopic surgery environment. In order to accomplish coordination between the surgeon and the robotic assistant, a system able to recognize and differentiate between certain standard maneuvers should be developed. The new user interface is based on this maneuvers recognition system, which models the surgeon behavior. This interface consists of the data acquisition and the recognition system. The maneuvers are modeled with Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) and are trained off-line. The system has been tested in some in-vitro experiments as in tissue cutting, suturing and transporting.

Robot Collaborative Assistance for Suture Procedures via Minimally Invasive Surgery

Surgical robotics has usually provided the handle of surgical tools by using teleoperated systems or the automation of certain surgical tasks. However, the final goal of this field has always consisted of allowing the surgeon to perform an intervention without additional human assistance (i.e. solosurgery). In this way, this paper is focused on the design and implementation of a semi-autonomous surgical robot capable of assisting the surgeon during a suture procedure on a Hand Assisted Laparoscopic Surgery (HALS) scenario. The methodology proposed is based on a dispatcher system which manages the actuations of the robot depending on the recognized gestures of the surgeon’s tool. The performance of the whole architecture has been tested by means of in vitro trials.

Control Methodologies for Endoscope Navigation in Robotized Laparoscopic Surgery

This paper is focused on the motion control problem for a laparoscopic surgery robot assistant. This article studies both, navigation problem and efforts applied with an actuated wrist when the endoscope interacts with the patient: gravity, friction and abdominal effort. In this way, a new control strategy has been proposed based on a previous work with a passive wrist robotic assistant. This strategy is able to emulate the behavior of a passive wrist by using two nestled control loops. Finally, the paper concludes with a comparison between both wrists, as well as future applications for actuated wrists related to minimally invasive surgery.

Active wrists endoscope navigation in robotized laparoscopic surgery

This paper is focused on the motion control problem for a laparoscopic surgery robot assistant with an actuated wrist. These assistants may apply non-desired efforts through the patient abdomen. Therefore, this article studies these efforts, which have been measured by a force sensor located between the wrist and the endoscope, and how to remove gravity and friction actions in order to obtain the abdominal efforts. The measure of these efforts indicates if the movements are done accordingly to the fulcrum point. To achieve this goal, a new control strategy, based on the emulation of passive wrists behavior, is proposed. Such methodology allows the assistant to minimize efforts over the patient. Finally, this work presents the advantages of actuated wrists for possible future applications.