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GRASP Seminar Series: Fall 2005
December 2, 11:00 AM, 307 Levine Hall
Allison Okamura
The Johns Hopkins University
“Haptic Sensing, Modeling and Feedback in Robot-Assisted Surgery”
Abstract: Robot-assisted surgery can improve the outcomes of medical procedures by enhancing accuracy and minimally invasive access, thereby reducing patient trauma and recovery time. However, the current lack of haptic (force and tactile) information compromises system performance. This talk will examine the role of haptics in three types of systems: (1) telemanipulation systems, in which the patient is remote from the operator, (2) cooperative manipulation systems, in which the robot and the operator physically "share" a surgical tool, and (3) autonomous systems, in which the surgery is carried out by the robot, with guidance from imaging systems or other sensors. Our work on telemanipulation focuses on control system design, force sensing and feedback mechanisms, and techniques for evaluating surgeon performance, with applications in cardiothoracic surgery. Research in cooperative manipulation is directed toward microsurgical procedures and the development of methods to automatically provide "virtual fixtures" that assist the surgeon. In autonomous systems, we consider tool-tissue interaction modeling for virtual environments that can be used for planning or training, as well as needle steering for improved dexterity and targeting accuracy.
Biography: Dr. Allison Okamura is an Assistant Professor
of Mechanical Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University. She received
her B.S. degree from UC Berkeley in 1994 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from
Stanford University in 1996 and 2000, all in Mechanical Engineering. She
has worked in the development of haptic technology at Immersion Corporation,
and is now a faculty member of the NSF Engineering Research Center for
Computer Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology. She received the
National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2004 and the IEEE Robotics
and Automation Society Early Academic Career Award in 2005. Her current
research interests include the design and control of telemanipulators
and haptic virtual environments, tissue and task modeling for surgical
procedure assistance and simulation, and haptics in education.
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