Abstract: Minimally invasive (endoscopic) surgery is a less invasive alternative to traditional open procedures, in which the instruments (surgical tools and an endoscope) are inserted into the body cavity through small incisions. With minimally invasive surgery (MIS), the trauma to the body, the post-operative pain and the length of hospital stay are reduced significantly compared to open surgery. However, MIS has inherent drawbacks arising from such issues as hand-eye coordination, ergonomics, magnification of hand tremors, loss of dexterity, and limited tactile or kinesthetic feedback. Most of these drawbacks can be overcome by using robotics-based systems for minimally invasive surgery. This talk will first give an overview of the research being conducted on robotics-assisted minimally invasive surgery and therapy at Canadian Surgical Technologies & Advanced Robotics (CSTAR). It will then focus on several specific issues related to the use of robotic systems in minimally invasive surgery and therapy. In particular, problems associated with the incorporation of haptics (sense of touch) in robotics-assisted MIS and the development of robotic systems for percutaneous interventions will be discussed.

Biography: Dr. Rajni Patel received the B.Eng. (Honours) degree in Electronics from the University of Liverpool, England, in 1969, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, England, in 1973. From 1973 to 1998 he held postdoctoral and faculty positions at various universities and research centres in England, Sweden, U.S.A., Canada, and Holland. He joined the University of Western Ontario in 1999 as Chair of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Currently, Dr. Patel holds a Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Advanced Robotics and is a Distinguished University Professor at Western with a cross appointment in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Patel is an internationally renowned researcher with over 25 years of research experience in the design, simulation, prototyping and control of advanced robotic and other mechatronic systems. Since 1999, his research has focused on robotic applications in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and therapy, virtual-reality and haptics based surgical simulations, teleoperation, and human-machine interaction. To date he has published over 340 refereed papers and seven research monographs. Dr. Patel has collaborated with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Bombardier Inc. on the development of novel robotic technologies for space applications which were selected by CSA for implementation on its dual-arm Automation and Robotics Test-bed (CART). Through his research, Dr. Patel has developed a unique state-of-the-art advanced medical robotics research facility consisting of a number of highly sophisticated robotic systems including an image-guided robotic system for prostate brachytherapy, a haptics-enabled master-slave MIS testbed, and a sensorized laparoscopic system and an open-architecture dual-arm robotic MIS testbed for surgical training and skills assessment. A founding member of CSTAR, Dr. Patel is currently serving as its Director of Engineering. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, ASME and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He has served on the editorial boards of several leading journals in the areas of robotics and control systems, including the IEEE Transactions on Robotics, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, and the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.

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