Journal of Medical Robotics Research

For the safe and effective development of evolving autonomous medical robotic systems that traverse the surface of the body, like in breast ultrasound scans, developing phantoms that are durable and mechanically mimic human tissue is critical. In this work, a long lasting, inexpensive, and geometrically customizable phantom is described with mechanical and ultrasound acoustic properties that simulate human breast tissue. In comparison to prior work, a priority was designing a highly elastic phantom outer layer modulus  20 kPa and inner semi-liquid layer to mimic the difficulties of traversing human breast tissue with autonomous medical robotic systems. In addition, ultrasound images of the novel phantom with enclosed tumor are similar to in vivo image of human breast tissue with invasive ductal carcinoma, representing 80% of breast cancer cases. The performance of a force feedback controller on an autonomous ultrasound scanning system was compared for the novel phantom and a commercial phantom. Overall, the controller performed worse on the novel phantom — highlighting the importance of testing autonomous systems on realistic phantoms.

This paper presents the experimental position and force testing of a 3-armed 6-DOF Parallel Robot, Robossis, that is specifically designed for the application of long-bone femur fracture surgery. Current surgical techniques require a significant amount of time and effort to restore the fractured femur fragments’ length, alignment and rotation. To address these issues, the Robossis system will facilitate the femur fracture surgical procedure and oppose the large traction forces/torques of the muscle groups surrounding the femur. As such, Robossis would subsequently improve patient outcomes by eliminating intraoperative injuries, reducing radiation exposure from X-rays during surgery and decreasing the likelihood of follow-up operations. Specifically, in this paper, we study the accuracy of the Robossis system while moving in the operational workspace under free and simulated traction loads of ($\sim 50$–1100N). Experimental testing in this study demonstrates that Robossis can reach the most extreme points in the workspace, as defined by the theoretical workspace, while maintaining minimal deviation from those points with an average deviation of 0.324mm. Furthermore, the force testing experiment shows that Robossis can counteract loads that are clinically relevant to restoring the fractured femur fragments’ length, alignment and rotation. In addition, we study the accuracy of Robossis motion while coupled with the master controller Sigma 7. The results show that Robossis can follow the desired trajectory in real-time with an average error of less than 1mm. To conclude, these results further establish the ability of the Robossis system to facilitate the femur fracture surgical procedure and eliminate limitations faced with the current surgical techniques.

Since interoperability in the operating room (OR) is considered a main factor to increase safety and improve the quality of surgeries, new challenges arise for the medical device industry in this increasingly connected environment. Therefore, new architectural approaches are needed, some of which may be inspired by other domains. In the meantime, novel communication paradigms are also gaining practical relevance in the automotive industry, which faces similar challenges. As a result, service-oriented architectures (SOAs) are often considered to provide a higher degree of flexibility for changes during the development and after product deployment. In this paper, we derive requirements of future networked OR tables from challenges and trends ahead. Based on these requirements, we propose a mixed electric and electronic architecture (E/E-architecture) inspired by the state-of-the-art measures from automotive domain and present an Identity and Access Management (IAM) approach to improve system security. In addition, a prototypical implementation is used to demonstrate the practicality of the proposed solution and to discuss necessary adjustments to the development process resulting from a mixed E/E-architecture approach.