Haptic Simulation of Robotically Assisted Surgical Procedures

Version française/French version

Contract Length

A 13-month postdoc / research engineer position, available now, in the framework of the ENDOXIROB project, labelled by the French Framework for Health Technologies.

Context

The Xir team (surgeons and computer science research scientists) leads an ambitious program of research and development in the key areas of robotics surgery: modeling of deformable organs, planning & simulation of robotics procedures and safe & real-time integration with enhanced reality. Today, this research is performed in collaboration with Pr. Alain Carpentier's heart surgery team, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou & the Epidaure (Medical Imaging), Prisme (Algorithmical Geometry), RobotVis (Computer Vision) research teams at INRIA Sophia Antipolis. with the objectives to demonstrate the validity of the theory by experimentation about concrete problems in teleopearated heart surgery and by developping algorithms in cooperation with industrial partners.

Mission profile: Haptic Simulation of Robotically Assisted Surgical Procedures

We want to extend the features of the simulator, currently designed in the team, for robotically assisted surgical procedures. For each patient, the simulator permits to emulate the effects of the robotics tools on the patient and thus validate the surgical procedure before the real procedure is performed in the Operating Room. In addition, the educational purpose of the simulator is to teach surgeons new surgical gestures. Today, a dedicated interface provides the surgeon with visual information, allowing a direct manipulation of the surgical robotics tools (models of a teleoperated system are used) to perform the surgical procedure on the patients' models. The clinical assessment of the surgical procedure is performed in different clinical domains.

The objectif of the project is to exploit the use of force feedback in the simulator using a haptic system available on the surgeon's side (integrated in the master console). The adjonction of tactile information will allow to constrain the surgeon's motions within a free surgical workspace.

A 3D model of the operational space (the patient) will be used to determine first the admissible motions, then, to plan the motions, and finally to compute the repulsive forces required for the haptic feedback perceived by the surgeon.

Candidate profile

Salary

The salary will be based on the candidate's qualifications.

Information & application

Ève Coste-Manière
http://www.inria.fr/chir


Resume file: