Colloquia

Summary

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) offers numerous benefits for patients over traditional open surgeries, including smaller incision and reduced recovery time. Micro-robotic surgery using micro-/milli-sized agents is a promising technique of MIS. Despite recent advancements, the methods of actuating, deploying and sensing of these agents within the human body remains a challenge. The da Vinci System by Intuitive Surgical is considered to be the industry standard in performing MIS worldwide. However, there is a lack of specialized instruments compatible with the da Vinci system to integrate micro-agents for advanced micro-surgical procedures.

This thesis presents the design, optimization, and characterization of a complete framework of instruments for the da Vinci robot, focusing on the actuation, deployment and sensing of magnetic microbeads. First, we begin with the design of a linkage system to connect the custom instruments to the da Vinci system's patient-side robotic arms, ensuring sufficient range of motion. A kinematic simulation is performed to validate the linkage system. Second, an electromagnetic guiding instrument is developed to actuate the magnetic microbead. This instrument is optimized using Finite Element Analysis and its performance is characterized with respect to its output and thermal performance. Third, a deployment tool for injecting the magnetic microbeads into biological tissue is conceptualized, with injection chosen over ingestion due to its precision and control. Subsequently, we design a concept of a sensing instrument for tracking the microbeads during surgery. Various sensing methods are explored, with ultrasound selected for its superior spatial and temporal resolution. Finally, we fabricate the guiding instrument and the linkage system and perform characterization experiments.

This thesis resulted in the design of a complete framework for performing robot-assisted surgery using magnetic microbeads. The fabrication of the linkage system ensured the tools’ compatibility with the da Vinci system, while the characterization experiments show promising results for this miniaturized electromagnet