Enhancing Surgery Through Robotics and Simulation

Kenneth Salisbury

In the last few years we have seen the introduction of robotic
technologies into the field of minimally invasive surgery.
Significant surgical skill enhancement has been achieved through a mixing of MIS techniques with newly developed robotics and human-machine interface technologies. Today's emerging robotically enhanced surgical systems provide surgeons with a vastly improved user interface, enhanced visualization and haptic capabilities, full 6 degree-of-freedom mobility, and a more complete integration of information and manipulation resources. This enables surgeons to perform via minimally invasive techniques complex procedures which previously were only possible via open technique. More importantly, the new technologies provide an opportunity for clinical integration of pre- and intra-operative navigational aids and other sensory enhancements. This also provides an environment in which simulation techniques can be used to great advantage in preoperative planning and training.

This talk will review these emerging technologies, with specific reference to Dr. Salisbury's work with Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical System and his NIH-funded work at Stanford University on collaborative simulation-based surgical training.

Biography:

Professor Salisbury received his PhD from Stanford in Mechanical Engineering in 1982. At MIT from 1982-1999, he served as Principal Research Scientist in Mechanical Engineering and as a member of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Some of the projects with which he has been associated include the Stanford-JPL Robot Hand, the JPL Force Reflecting Hand Controller, the MIT-WAM arm, and the Black Falcon Surgical Robot. His work with haptic interface technology led to the founding of SensAble Technologies Inc.,, producers of the PHANTOM haptic interface and 3D FreeForm software. In 1997 he joined the staff at Intuitive Surgical, in Mountain View, where his efforts have focused on the development of telerobotic systems for the operating room. In the fall of 1999 he joined the faculty at Stanford in the Departments of Computer Science and Surgery where his research focuses on human centered robotics, cooperative haptics and surgical simulation. He currently serves on the National Science Foundation's Advisory Council for Robotics and Human Augmentation, as Scientific Advisor to Intuitive Surgical, Inc and as Technical Advisor to Robotic Ventures, Inc.