Improving Minimally Invasive Surgery

The Students:
Cameron Crane ’24, Nicholas Johannessen ’24, Joshua Kleiman ’24, and Calvin Page ’24, members of an MQP team that won the Best Paper Award at the International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics in Beppu, Japan.

The Advisors:
Adam Powell, associate professor of mechanical & materials engineering and director of WPI’s Kyoto, KUAS MQP Project Center; Sharon Johnson, industrial engineering program director and professor of operations and industrial engineering; and Yihao Zheng, assistant professor of mechanical & materials engineering.

The Background:
Kleiman was inspired to develop a prototype of a robotic surgical instrument for his Major Qualifying Project by his friend Charles Manger ’23, who started the project in 2022 with Professor Sajid Nisar at Kyoto University of Advanced Science in the Novel Intelligent Systems & Advanced Robotics Laboratory. Kleiman asked Crane, Johannessen, and Page to join the team to update the design and address functional challenges. The goal was to model, test, and ultimately build a prototype of the cable-driven robotic surgical instrument.

The Methodology:
Given the seven-week time frame for the project, the students relied heavily on rapid prototyping to construct models and identify areas where changes needed to be made. To source parts, they used 3D printed objects, visited local hardware stores, tapped into the NISAR lab’s inventory of screws and bolts, and collaborated with others in the lab who were there doing different research.

“We worked in a foreign environment, in a lab full of international students from Asia, Europe, and the Americas,” says Johannessen. “I was proud of how our team adapted to the environment of being in a completely different culture on the other side of the world without any connection or having been there before.”

The Result:
The novel design is comparable to a human arm, which allows a surgeon to operate the robotic system remotely and move it in five independent ways. A baseplate houses motors, gears, and cables that drive joints in the instrument. These parts allow the shoulder to roll, the elbow to pivot, and the wrist to curl. Axles and gears in the wrist joint allow two forceps to be manipulated to open, close, and grip. The high degree of independent movement allows for precision, dexterity, and versatility, all of which are critical components of minimally invasive surgery.

Page says the design allows the tool to reach around obstructions, “which can really open the window to new opportunities. This tool could create an avenue for minimally invasive robotic surgery in parts of the body where maybe before a procedure would’ve had to be done by a traditional surgery method.” The team says other design benefits include the separate baseplate and arm, which allows for a smaller incision and easier sterilization.

The Future:
Nisar says the next steps will be to further develop the prototype at his lab in Japan, with a focus on miniaturizing the instrument to provide access to hard-to-reach areas during surgeries. He envisions a collaboration with medical professionals and industry to integrate the technology into robot-assisted surgeries.