McDonald-Bowyer, Aoife;
(2025)
Soft Robotic Surgical Devices for Organ Manipulation and Imaging.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
RAMIS is increasingly being used for urological, gynaecological, colorectal and cardiothoracic procedures. This approach preserves the benefits of less-invasive laparoscopy with the enhanced dexterity and control of robotics. However, current laparoscopic and robotic surgical instruments are rigid and sharp, making bulk organ retraction and intra-operative imaging challenging. Bulk organ retraction often requires additional instruments, ports and surgeons, and the instruments used increase the risk of injury. Procedures requiring \gls{ious} are only performed by a few highly skilled surgeons, are limited to specialist centres, restricting access for most patients. To address these limitations, there is a need for innovative surgical instruments that deviate from rigid designs to improve ergonomics and functionality in challenging subtasks. Soft robotics offers a solution by leveraging flexibility and soft actuation to overcome the constraints of conventional tools. This thesis explores the development of a novel soft robotic surgical instrument for robotic-assisted renal surgery and other abdominal procedures. The device uses low-pressure pneumatic suction to adhere to smooth organs and serves as a mounting point for surgical tools and probes. Initially, work focused on the design of the device suction cup to maximise tissue adherence for manipulation. The design was further optimised for integrating soft sensing. Following this, two methods of extracting shape information of the soft device were evaluated by conducting autonomous ultrasound scans. These scans were evaluated for structure recognition by radiologists, and compared with the freehand approach. In a pre-clinical user study, the device demonstrated good usability for organ manipulation during renal surgery, highlighting its potential for clinical translation. Peer-reviewed results on technical development of this device suggest the intended instrument is a promising step towards adopting intelligent soft robotics as part of the surgical toolkit.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Soft Robotic Surgical Devices for Organ Manipulation and Imaging |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Med Phys and Biomedical Eng |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10207401 |
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