Continuum robots for minimally invasive orthopaedic surgeries

Continuum robots

Project Overview

Current minimally invasive orthopaedic surgeries use straight, rigid tools that have little dexterity at the tip. The rigidity limits the reachability and manoeuvrability in the small confined space in most minimally invasive orthopaedic settings such as arthroscopy for knee, hip or shoulder. This project aims to develop highly dexterous snake-like tools for both manual and robotic orthopaedic surgeries by applying novel continuum mechanisms to the design and implementation. The increased flexibility and dexterity will significantly expand the reachability and improve the manoeuvrability of the tools either in a manual minimally invasive surgery or a robot-assisted orthopaedic surgery.

Project Objectives

This project expects to bring better outcomes in minimally invasive orthopaedic surgeries with reduced operation time, minimised unintended damages and faster recovery.


Team

Other Team Members

Current Students:
  • Andrew Razjigaev
  • Lindsey Paul
  • Timothy Chant
Past Students:
  • Abigyat Prasai

One prototype of the continuum robots is capable of delivering micro instruments through a curvy passage