STIFF FLOP Demonstration of a reflex controller
Published on Nov 2, 2014
The STIFF-FLOP consortium demonstrated a new soft, stiffness-controllable manipulator for Minimally Invasive Surgery. We integrated two 3 DoF F/T sensors, 3 Aurora pose sensors, an cauterisation tool at the tip, and granular jamming into a silicone-based structure. The hardware is integrated via RoNeX into a ROS System Map. In this video, we demonstrate the reflex control
Robotic arm inspired by octopus
Published on May 14, 2015
A robotic arm that can bend, stretch and squeeze through cluttered environments has been inspired by the arms of the octopus. The device could be used for surgical operations, enabling surgeons to access remote, confined regions of the body and manipulate soft organs without damaging them.
A bioinspired soft manipulator for minimally invasive surgery
Published on Apr 25, 2016
This paper introduces a novel, bioinspired manipulator for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). The manipulator is entirely composed of soft materials, and it has been designed to provide similar motion capabilities as the octopus's arm in order to reach the surgical target while exploiting its whole length to actively interact with the biological structures. The manipulator is composed of two identical modules (each of them can be controlled independently) with multi-directional bending and stiffening capabilities, like an octopus arm. In the authors' previous works, the design of the single module has been addressed. Here a two-module manipulator is presented, with the final aim of demonstrating the enhanced capabilities that such a structure can have in comparison with rigid surgical tools currently employed in MIS. The performances in terms of workspace, stiffening capabilities, and generated forces are characterized through experimental tests. The combination of stiffening capabilities and manipulation tasks is also addressed to confirm the manipulator potential employment in a real surgical scenario.
A soft modular manipulator for minimally invasive surgery
Published on Apr 25, 2016
his paper presents the concept design of a modular soft manipulator for minimally invasive surgery. Unlike traditional surgical manipulators based on metallic steerable needles, tendon-driven mechanisms, or articulated motorized links, we combine flexible fluidic actuators to obtain multidirectional bending and elongation with a variable stiffness mechanism based on granular jamming. The idea is to develop a manipulator based on a series of modules, each consisting of a silicone matrix with pneumatic chambers for 3-D motion, and one central channel for the integration of granular-jamming-based stiffening mechanism. A bellows-shaped braided structure is used to contain the lateral expansion of the flexible fluidic actuator and to increase its motion range. In this paper, the design and experimental characterization of a single module composed of such a manipulator is presented. Possible applications of the manipulator in the surgical field are discussed.
Miniaturised soft robot for minimally invasive surgery
Published on May 14, 2016
Keyhole, or minimally invasive, surgery can offer many benefits over more traditional, open operations, including reduced risk of infections, quicker recovery times and less scarring. But internal organs can get in the way when hard robotic arms are used, given that access can be very limited and soft tissue can sometimes move in unexpected ways.
The EU-funded STIFF-FLOP project has designed, built and operated a soft robotic arm that can squeeze into the body, manoeuvre gently around soft tissue, reconfigure itself, and stiffen to perform tasks that need force.
‘The aim is to develop soft robotics systems that can elongate, bend and move around organs,’ said project coordinator Professor Kaspar Althoefer who conducted the research at King’s College London, UK, and is now at Queen Mary University of London, UK.
‘The octopus provided some inspiration. It has no bones or skeletal structure, and it can squeeze through very narrow openings, but stiffen when required,’ he said.
The robotic arm works through a combination of air and granules. When air is pumped in, the granules inside it are able to move freely and allow both flexibility and a large range of motion. When the air is sucked out again, the granules clump together, making the structure stiff and rigid in the required position.
The system also helps surgeons to deal with complex soft tissue movements and uncertain situations, such as when organs shift, or move with the patient’s breathing and heartbeat.
With keyhole surgery, the instruments are inserted through narrow openings and they have to pivot around that small incision. And because the surgeon is unable to use a hand directly to feel inside the body, for example to identify the borders of a tumour, a successful operation is dependent on visual feedback from a camera at the end of the robotic arm.
So among the next steps is developing technology allowing surgeons to receive feedback from the operation site through touch, a field known as haptics.
In addition to joysticks and data gloves, haptic devices include possibilities such as vibratory actuators and pressure pads on the surgeon’s arm to simulate the feeling of operating through a much larger incision.
Dr Helge Wurdemann, project manager of STIFF-FLOP, said: ‘In particular, haptics has great potential to offer benefits to surgeons but, more importantly, to patients’ outcomes, when it comes to interventions that are less and less invasive.’
Cadaver
The STIFF-FLOP project put the soft robotic arm through a series of successful tests on a cadaver. The collaborators are now developing it further, with a view to possibly testing it in veterinary surgery, and eventually in operations on live people.
‘We have demonstrated the feasibility of the approach and so we would like to try it out on a living system, though that will require much further development,’ Prof. Althoefer said.
STIFF-FLOP manipulator with reinforced fluidic chambers - soft robot for MIS
Published on Jun 6, 2016
STIFF-FLOP focused on Challenge 2 - Cognitive systems and robotics. In minimally invasive surgery, tools go through narrow openings and manipulate soft organs that can move, deform, or change stiffness. There are limitations on modern laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgical systems due to restricted access through Trocar ports, lack of haptic feedback, and difficulties with rigid robot tools operating inside a confined space filled with organs. Also, many control algorithms suffer from stability problems in the presence of unexpected conditions. Yet biological “manipulators”, like the octopus arm and the elephant trunk, can manipulate objects while controlling the stiffness of selected body parts and being inherently compliant when interacting with objects.
We created a soft robotic arm that can squeeze through a standard 15mm diameter Trocar-port, reconfigure itself and stiffen to perform compliant force control tasks while facing unexpected situations. We addressed the complete system: the design and fabrication of the soft manipulator with a gripper at the tip, distributed sensing, biologically inspired actuation and control architectures, learning and developing cognition through interaction with a human instructor, and manipulating soft objects in complex and uncertain environments.
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