Progress In Tubular Robot Structures for Surgery

Abstract: Continuum robots are slender elastic structures that can be remotely actuated and steered, with many potential applications in medicine. Many such structures have been explored by the robotics community over the last two decades, including systems based on tendon/cable-drive, concentric pre-curved tubes, shape-memory actuation, and fluidic actuation. In recent work, we explored a new method based on asymmetrically laser-machined, concentric tubes that are welded together at their tips. Pushing and pulling the bases of the tubes then controls deformation in the laser-machined sections. These concentric push-pull robots have great potential as manipulators that can be delivered through flexible endoscopes to steer diagnostic and therapeutic tools with greater dexterity and range than is currently possible. This talk will discuss recent progress in design and modeling for these robots and others toward next-generation surgical systems. I will also highlight the process of translating technology from the lab into commercial products at EndoTheia.

Bio: Caleb Rucker received his B.S. degree in engineering mechanics and mathematics from Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN, USA, in 2006, and his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, in 2011.