Medical Robots

Introduction to Research Area 2

Appropriate positioning and guiding of tools is one major aspect for safe and efficient therapy. Image guidance, computer-supported "hands-on" setups or also tele-operated robot systems are increasingly entering the scene and contribute to new treatment procedures and increased quality of surgical interventions. In ACMIT, Research Area 2 "Medical Robotics and Positioning Systems" will contribute to the development of new robot systems for image-guided tool or patient positioning as well as surgical assistance systems. Research is performed on two levels - component level and system level.
On component level, research tasks mainly include development of versatile system components following an open architecture approach. Work aims to development of a set of hardware and software components with defined interfaces and different interaction principles. A particular focus is on small and portable setups with easy integration into (existing) clinical work-flow as well as on "embedded safety".
On system level existing modules will be adapted to the requirements of particular clinical applications and combined to application-specific setups. Work also includes definition of evaluation criteria and performance measurement. At the moment, clinical applications include procedures from interventional radiology, neuro-surgery, internal/external radiation therapy, and orthopaedic surgery.

Research activities in Research Area 2 are grouped into five main projects:

• Robot-Assisted and Needle-Based Tumour Treatment
• Remote-Controlled Tool Holders for "Minimally Invasive Procedures"
• Integrated System for Minimally Invasive Autopsy
• Image Guided Patient Positioning and Immobilisation for Effective Therapy
• "In-vivo" Robot Systems for Clinical Use

In conclusion, research in Research Area 2 is aimed to contribute to the field of medical robotics in order to demonstrate the benefits of this technology, which finally will lead to a continued rise in the use of robot systems in medicine.

ACMIT Competence

The research group at ACMIT center has more than 10 years of experience in the development of robot systems for needle based percutaneous interventions. One cornerstone of development has been the "B-RobII" robot system. Together with national and international research partners various applications based on this robot system have been developed and successfully evaluated both in vivo and in vitro.
The group includes all competences required for development of medical robot systems, like:

• Integrated 3D design
• Software development
• Electronics development
• Development of mechatronic prototypes
• User interface design
• Biomedical engineering
• Quality management and risk analysis

Contact person: For any question about the work in ACMIT Research Area 2 please contact the responsible area manager, Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Gernot Kronreif.