Wednesday, October 30, 2024
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Wilkinson Building, room 021 auditorium
Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Fall 2024 Seminar Series, welcomes Robert Webster, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University, to present his lecture, “Can Needle-Sized Robot Tentacles Help Surgeons Save Lives?”
ABSTRACT: Thin, flexible robots able to bend and elongate can help surgeons reach deeper and more accurately into the human body than ever before, through increasingly smaller incisions. This talk will cover recent breakthroughs in design, control, and sensing that are rapidly pushing the boundaries of surgical robotics to smaller scales, greater accuracy, and more effective interaction with surgeons. Mechanics-based models of elastic robots provide the basis for these advancements, which in turn provide the raw materials necessary for building effective surgical robotic systems. These systems can offer autonomous, teleoperated, or hand-held surgeon-robot interactions. The talk will cover both recent advancements in concentric tube robots and other new ideas in surgical robotics. An important theme of the talk will be the fascinating process of partnering with surgeons to create robots suitable for real-world operating room environments that have the potential to be powerful weapons in the fight against lung disease, brain tumors, hemorrhagic stroke, epilepsy, deafness, and urologic disorders.
