Medical Robotics
2024/25
Marilena Vendittelli
Information
schedule
Monday 15:00-17:00, room 22, San Pietro in Vincoli; students of the Master in Biomedical Engineering
Tuesday 14:00-16:00, A5, via Ariosto 25; all students
Wednesday 10:00-12:00, A5, via Ariosto 25; students of the Masters in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and Control Engineering
Friday 08:00-10:00, A4, via Ariosto 25; all students
Friday 10:00-12:00, A4, via Ariosto 25; students of the Master in Biomedical Engineering
Audience
Students of the Master in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Control Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome.
Objective
Introduction to the applications of robotic technologies in the medical context, with particular emphasis on surgical robotics.
Expected learning results: knowledge of the main robotic surgical systems and of the challenges and methodologies involved in medical robots design and control.
Expected competence in:
- critically reading a scientific paper describing medical robotics technologies;
- discussing in detail the state of the art of robotics applications in medicine;
- estimating potential benefits deriving from the introduction of robotic technologies in a medical procedure;
- arguing the development of a particular technology not yet available or experimentally validated;
- communicating and collaborating with people with different technical background;
- evaluating clinical, social and economical constraints in implementing a robotic technology in a medical context;
- control design for medical robots: physical-interaction control, teleoperation, constrained manipulation, shared execution of surgical tasks;
- design and developemtns of simulation systems for planning, training, augmentation of medical procedures;
- safety and regulatory aspects involved in the introduction of robotic systems in medical procedures.
Contents
Course contents vary on a yearly basis. The list reported below includes the core topics treated during the course.
- Introduction to the course
- Historical perspective and surgical systems overview
- Classification of surgical systems supported by robots
- Kinematic design of medical robots
- Control modalities of medical robots vs their domain of use
- Physical interaction control: basic principles and case studies
- Shared control and virtual fixtures
- Virtual fixtures: examples of application
- Constrained manipulation and constrained targeting: task control with Remote Center of Motion (RCM) constraint
- Teleoperation 1: general principles
- Teleoperation 2: the 4-channel architecture, transparency and stability
- Visual servoing: concept and mathematical formulation for monocular cameras
- Visual servoing for medical procedures assisted by robots
- Principles of medical imaging (ultrasound, TC, MR)
- Applications of visual servoing
- Autonomous retrieval and positioning of surgical tools
- 3D ultrasound-guided needle steering
- Optimization of Ultrasound Image Quality via Visual Servoing
- Automatic Tracking of an Organ Section with US
- Haptics
- Introduction to haptics
- Haptic rendering
- Case study: needle-tissue interaction force identification and haptic rendering in teleoperated needle insertion
- Robot registration
- Introduction and formulation of the problem
- Case study: robot registration in a robot-assisted superficial hyperthermia system
- Exoskeletons and biomechanics of walking
- Exoskeletons: introductory concepts and examples
- Human gait analysis
- Case study: comparative gait analysis on twins for childrens affected by celebral palsyÂ
- Simulation tools
- the da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) kinematic simulator
- the dVRK dynamic simulator
- visuo-haptic interaction with virtual patients
- Safety
- General concepts
- Synthetic description of the IEC 80601-2-77 (safety of robotically assisted surgical equipment and systems)
- European Regulation on Medical Devices
- The AI act and the healthcare technologies
- Integration of AI methods
- Temperature estimation of internal body targets from superficial measurements
- Simulation of deformable structures
- Hands-on sessions decided yearly
For details and material, access the course site in Sapienza e-learning environment.
Prerequisites
A general background in robotics (kinematics, dynamics, control), as given in Robotics 1 and Robotics 2 and is highly recommended.
Grading
To obtain 6 credits for Medical Robotics there are two alternative exam modalities:
- usually requiring programming
- work done in groups of 3-4 students
- necessary condition for project assignment:
2 homeworks assigned during the course must be completed with grade at least equal to B
- wheight on the final grade
project: 90%
homeworks: 10%
- written exam plus oral discussion
examples of written exam text are available in e-MR
oral discussion can involve any topic in the program
Master Theses at the Robotics Laboratory
Master Theses on the topics studied in this course can be discussed directly with the instructor.
Questions/comments: vendittelli [at] diag [dot] uniroma1 [dot] it