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Lafayette, Ind.--Dr. Daniel Wickert is one of the local midwife-gynaecologists who uses the da Vinci Surgical System, a $ 1.5 million robot-assisting surgical device housed in St. Elizabeth East.
While sitting at the console of the system, Wickert four robotic arms maneuver during common gynaecological operations such as a hysterectomy. "We are now making smaller incisions, which allows people to recover faster," said Wickert, who works at Lafayette & Obstetrics Gynecology.
Not surprisingly, Wickert open for more robotic devices to assist in the operating room. "I think we're at the beginning of where robots or the benefits of the advanced technology will take us."
Purdue University researchers develop a gesture-controlled robotic scrub nurse prototype that may one day ease the nurse of some of its technical tasks or replace the scrub technician who sometimes is responsible for the fulfilment of these tasks.
The vision is for the robot two tasks that monotonous but extremely important for a scrub nurse or tech-the instruments to the surgeon and control of the number of instruments used are-but faster than a human. The goal is to help reduce medical errors such as exit instruments within the body of a patient.
Juan Wachs, an assistant professor of industrial engineering at Purdue, leads the research team. It includes two industrial engineering PhD, Ting Yu Li and Mithun Jacob. The doctoral duo is responsible for making the robot "intelligent" by creating the necessary software.
They are writing the code, the experiments to perform, validation of the system, summary of the results and compare different approaches. Wachs is mentoring, advise and guide them through the research.
Wachs is specialized in machine and computer vision and robotics. The idea for this robotic scrub nurse came during his machine vision and robotics graduate level class held fall semester.
October, Li and Jacob were brainstorming ideas for a final project, and the idea of the development of a gesture-controlled robotic scrub nurse came into creation.
Using natural language, gestures and Robotics in the operating room is something that Wachs has worked for the past five years. In 2008 he published research on "Gestix," another vision-based technology that would allow surgeons to images in an electronic medical record database search by simply moving their hands in front of a large computer screen, such as Tom Cruise made famous in the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie "Minority Report".
Instead of relying on nurses to browse through electronic medical records as soon as an operation begins--thus creating room for error and delays--the surgeon can browse through records on his own without the sterile field.
Gestix II is in development, said Wachs.
Li and Jacob didn't have to build the robot from scratch. Under the Wachs supervision she took a $ 32,500 robotic arm bought from Fanuc Robotics and developed software that could see hand gestures and react accordingly. "Now, the gestures are recognized at 95% accuracy," Jacob said.
The yellow Fanuc arm weighs about 59 pounds and sits in a aluminum and Plexiglass cage, that the user protects injured. Wachs said that this kind of robotic arm is used for education and research. Larger versions are used in car production facilities.
So far, the robot understands gestures for the following five surgical instruments; a scalpel, scissors, retractor, Tang and hemostat. Every gesture fingers used a number. For example, to receive a pair of scissors, the surgeon must stop two fingers in front of the camera.
The arm would then hand the scissors a magnetic gripping device that Li and Jacob created.
The quest to give this machine remains dynamic eyes and ears. Jacob is currently working on updating the possibility of "see" the robot by changing the current robotic eye--a comparable CCD camera with a video camera--to a Microsoft Kinect camera records. This will be the robot depth perception.
The prototype was fully functional in about five years, but its development will depend on future funding, Wachs said. Now, the development is funded by means of Wachs ' research start-up package of Purdue.
Wachs has applied for federal funding from the national institutes of health and plans to apply to the National Science Foundation. He hopes to reach at least $ 500,000 in total for the next five years of research. Most of the federal funding would be used to compensate for the research team. A smaller portion, between $ 50,000 and $ 60,000, would be used for the purchase of a longer and faster robotic arm.
The prototype has all his sceptics. Dr. Ruban Nirmalan, a general surgeon with Indiana University Health Arnett, said a robotic scrub nurse would not only have to be fast and recognize the voice of the surgeon and hand gestures flawlessly but can "think" and the series to keep up with a dynamic case change.
"Like a robot the (Basic) tasks do can it can be useful in some simple, routine operations," he said.
"However, I am skeptical that we have the technology now available for a robot that tasks. Ask a robot to think for themselves, and are doing well, the biggest hurdle for this device. "
Dorothy McClannen, professor of surgical technology and program chair at Ivy Tech Community College, is not concerned that this new technology scrub techs in the operating room will be replaced.
"I could see (have) a role in a part of the operation, but I don't see how it could be replaced by one of the (certified surgical technologists)," she said. "Their job is just far too complicated. People think they just passing on what the surgeon asks for but it is so much more than that. "
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