Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Engineering Science

Program

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Supervisor

Dr. Michael D. Naish

2nd Supervisor

Dr. Rajni V. Patel

Joint Supervisor

Abstract

Minimally Invasive Thoracoscopic Surgery (MITS) has become the treatment of choice for lung cancer. However, MITS prevents the surgeons from using manual palpation, thereby often making it challenging to reliably locate the tumours for resection. This thesis presents the design, analysis and validation of novel tactile sensors, a novel miniature force sensor, a robotic instrument, and a wireless hand-held instrument to address this limitation. The low-cost, disposable tactile sensors have been shown to easily detect a 5 mm tumour located 10 mm deep in soft tissue. The force sensor can measure six degrees of freedom forces and torques with temperature compensation using a single optical fiber. The robotic instrument is compatible with the da Vinci surgical robot and allows the use of tactile sensing, force sensing and ultrasound to localize the tumours. The wireless hand-held instrument allows the use of tactile sensing in procedures where a robot is not available.

Additional Files
Thesis Video 1 Robotic Palpation Instrument.mp4 (36198 kB)
This is brief video showing the functionality of the robotic palpation instrument that was developed as a part of my MESc research. It was created to compete in the Surgical Robotics Challenge 2015 (Hamlyn Symposium for Medical Robotics, London, UK), and the project won the "Best Innovation" award.
Thesis Video 2 Handheld Palpation Instrument.mp4 (18829 kB)
This is brief video showing the functionality of the wireless hand-held palpation instrument that was developed as a part of my MESc research. The instrument is demonstrated on a silicone phantom using both piezoresistive and capacitive tactile sensors.
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