Design, Modeling, and Control of Micro-scale and Meso-scale Tendon-driven surgical robots

Yash Chitalia, Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital

10/7/2021

Location: 122 Gates Hall

Time: 2:40p.m.

Abstract: Manual manipulation of passive surgical tools is time consuming with uncertain results. Steerable robotic micro-catheters and miniature endoscopes are essential to the operating room of the future. This talk introduces the design of a micro-scale (Outer Diameter: 0.4 mm) COaxially Aligned STeerable (COAST) guidewire/catheter robot for cardiovascular surgeries. This robot demonstrates variable and independently controlled bending length and curvature of the distal end allowing for follow-the-leader motion. The design, kinematics, statics models, and a controller for this robot are presented. The capability of the robot to accurately navigate through phantom anatomical bifurcations and tortuous angles is also demonstrated in phantom vascular structures. This talk also introduces the design, analysis and control of a meso-scale (Outer Diameter: 1.93 mm) two degree-of-freedom robotic bipolar electrocautery tool for the treatment of pediatric hydrocephalus. A static model and disturbance-observer based controller are developed for this tool to provide precise force control and compensate for joint hysteresis.

Bio: Yash Chitalia is a Research Fellow in Cardiac Surgery at the Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, where he works in the Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering Lab. His research revolves around the design, modeling, and control of minimally invasive surgical robots. This talk details his doctoral research in the Medical Robotics and Automation (RoboMed) laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology.