SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT - Andrea Bajo, 28/6/2012, 12:00am
Seminars in Robotics
Date and location: Thursday, June 28, 2012, 12:00, Aula 7 DIAG
Speaker: Andrea Bajo, Advanced Robotics and Mechanism Applications (ARMA) Laboratory Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
http://arma.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/andrea
Title: Algorithms for Control, Collision Detection, and Estimation of Contact Location of Multi-Backbone Surgical Continuum Robots
Abstract: As surgeons reach deeper inside the human anatomy with novel paradigms such as Single Port Access Surgery (SPAS) and Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) that aim to reduce patient’s trauma and post-operative recovery, robots are required to ensure safe manipulation and interaction with the anatomy along their entire structure. Continuum robots are intrinsically compliant mechanisms that offer an opportunity to provide surgeons with safe and intelligent slaves. This talk will focus on multi-backbone multi-segment continuum robots with push-pull actuation and algorithms for control and safe interaction of these devices with rigid and compliant environments. The kinematics and statics of these structures will be presented along with feed-forward and closed-loop actuation compensation schemes for enhanced performance. Based on this theoretical background algorithms for collision detection and estimation of contact location will be derived. The talk will conclude with an overview of the application of these algorithms on dexterous surgical systems developed by the ARMA Laboratory at Vanderbilt University for SPAS and NOTES.
Bio: Andrea Bajo received his “Laurea” in Control Engineering from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 2007 and his MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University, New York, NY in 2009, with a scholarship from the Honors Center of Italian Universities (H2CU). During that year he was named Samuel Rubinstein’s Graduate Scholar. He then enrolled in the PhD program in Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University and transferred to Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, along with his advisor in 2010. His research interests are in the area of medical robotics with an emphasis on the design of algorithms for motion control, safe interaction, and force control of continuum robots.
Contact: Alessandro De Luca
deluca@dis.uniroma1.it