Lifesaving Capsule Robots
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Lifesaving Capsule Robots
Wed, 28/09/2016 - 14:00 to 15:00
Location:
Speaker:
Prof Pietro Valdastri
Affiliation:
Leeds University
Synopsis:
The talk will move from capsule robots for gastrointestinal endoscopy toward a new generation of surgical robots and devices, having a relevant reduction in invasiveness as the main driver for innovation. Wireless capsule endoscopy has already been extremely helpful for the diagnosis of diseases in the small intestine. Specific wireless capsule endoscopes have been proposed for colon inspection, but have never reached the diagnostic accuracy of standard colonoscopy. In the first part of the talk, we will discuss enabling technologies that have the potential to transform colonoscopy and gastroscopy. These technologies include magnetic manipulation of capsule endoscopes, water jet propulsion, real-time pose tracking, and intermagnetic force measurement. The second part of the talk will give an overview about the development of novel robotic solutions for single incision robotic surgery. In particular, a novel surgical robotic platform based on local magnetic actuation will be presented as a possible approach to further minimize access trauma. The final part of the talk will introduce an open-source component-based design environment for capsule robots that aims at facilitating researchers in the field in exploring novel concepts and reducing the time to achieve a functional prototype.
Biography:
Prof. Valdastri’s academic career started with a Laurea degree cum Laude in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pisa in 2001 and a PhD degree cum Laude in Biomedical Engineering from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in 2006, with Prof. Paolo Dario as primary advisor. After the PhD, he served as Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna for three years, focusing on implantable medical devices and surgical robotics. In 2011, Prof. Valdastri moved to Vanderbilt University, where he became Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, with secondary appointments in the Electrical Engineering Department and in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. At Vanderbilt University, Prof. Valdastri founded the Science and Technologies Of Robotics in Medicine (STORM) Lab (www.stormlab.xyz), a research lab focusing on medical capsule robots for gastrointestinal endoscopy and abdominal surgery. In 2016, he moved to Leeds as Chair of Robotics and Autonomous Systems with a primary appointment in the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and a secondary appointment in the School of Mechanical Engineering. In Leeds, Prof. Valdastri continues to direct the STORM Lab and is actively involved in the Surgical Technologies Research Group.
Prof. Valdastri is a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), one of the Editors of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, a member of the Technology Committee of the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES), and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Medical Robotics Research. At Vanderbilt, he also served as a standing member of the Institutional Review Board. To date, STORM Lab’s research has been featured by several tech magazines, including WIRED, IEEE Spectrum, Medgadget, Medical Design Technology Magazine, Medical Xpress, Newswise, NSF Science Now.