Wireless solutions enabling robotic minimally invasive interventions

Giovedì 21 aprile alle ore 18, Arianna Menciassi, docente ordinario dell'Istituto di BioRobotica della Scuola Sant'Anna presenta il seminario "Wireless solutions enabling robotic minimally invasive interventions". L'incontro fa parte del ciclo di seminari 'La ricerca negli Istituti di Ingegneria della Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna' nell'ambito della programmazione didattica di Ingegneria '21/'22 a cura del prof. Christian Cipriani.
Diretta streaming sulla piattaforma WebEx e sul canale YouTube della Scuola Sant'Anna al seguente link: https://youtu.be/QZWsWDFsCmY.

Abstract

Robotic minimally invasive surgery was born as a response to the quest for precise, reliable, repeatable and targeted therapy.
After introducing some definitions for setting the stage in the field, this seminar will deal with different approaches and robot architectures for reaching the interventional area and for bringing the therapeutic actions where needed. Robotics and image-guided solutions naturally answer the quest for improving accuracy and reliability. Articulated robots, able to enter the human body through a minimal access or a natural orifice, have been developed by exploiting smart transmission mechanisms. In parallel, soft robotic technologies have evolved to answer the quest for safe interaction and improved flexibility. The quest for minimal invasiveness in surgery and therapy has steered the research interest towards wireless energy delivery methods. Ultrasound and magnetic fields have the potential to change the paradigm of targeted therapy, by reaching in a scarless way all human body organs and by triggering different effects, from dragging to propulsion and ablation. This seminar aims to present the above mentioned trends, with the support of specific examples coming from the speaker experience and her collaboration network.

Bio

Arianna Menciassi is a Professor of Bioengineering and Biomedical Robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA, Pisa, Italy). She graduated in Physics at the Pisa University (1995), she obtained the PhD (1999) at SSSA and she was visiting professor in different universities in France since 2014 (Pierre and Marie Curie, in Paris, Besancon University, in Besancon). She is Full Professor of Biomedical Robotics at SSSA and team leader of the “Surgical Robotics & Allied Technologies” Area at The BioRobotics Institute.
She is the Coordinator of the PhD in Biorobotics since 2018, and she was appointed in 2019 as Vice-Rector of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Her main research interests involve surgical robotics, microrobotics for biomedical applications, biomechatronic artificial organs, smart and soft solutions for biomedical devices. She pays a special attention to the combination between traditional robotics, targeted therapy and wireless solution for therapy (e.g. ultrasound- and magnetic-based).