title: Robotic force stabilization for beating heart intracardiac surgery.
abstract: The manipulation of fast moving, delicate tissues in beating heart procedures presents a considerable challenge to surgeons. We present a new robotic force stabilization system that assists surgeons by maintaining a constant contact force with the beating heart. The system incorporates a novel, miniature uniaxial force sensor that is mounted to surgical instrumentation to measure contact forces during surgical manipulation. Using this sensor in conjunction with real-time tissue motion information derived from 3D ultrasound, we show that a force controller with feed-forward motion terms can provide safe and accurate force stabilization in an in vivo contact task against the beating mitral valve annulus. This confers a 50% reduction in force fluctuations when compared to a standard force controller and a 75% reduction in fluctuations when compared to manual attempts to maintain the same force.
authors.affiliation: Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Shelten G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Yuen
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Yip
authors.forename: Nikolay V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Vasilyev
authors.forename: Douglas P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Perrin
authors.forename: Pedro J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: del Nido
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Howe
mesh_terms: D013504:Cardiovascular Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014159:Transducers