Octopus points to the future for keyhole surgery
Robotic arms inspired by the octopus could help doctors to perform new operations using keyhole surgery. By mimicking the octopus arm to transform from soft and flexible to stiff and rigid, these soft robotic tools could increase the scope for operations through small incisions.
Keyhole, or minimally invasive, surgery can offer many benefits over more traditional, open operations, including reduced risk of infections, quicker recovery times and less scarring. But internal organs can get in the way when hard robotic arms are used, given that access can be very limited and soft tissue can sometimes move in unexpected ways.
The EU-funded STIFF-FLOP project has designed, built and operated a soft robotic arm that can squeeze into the body, manoeuvre gently around soft tissue, reconfigure itself, and stiffen to perform tasks that need force.
'The aim is to develop soft robotics systems that can elongate, bend and move around organs,' said project coordinator Professor Kaspar Althoefer who conducted the research at King's College London, UK, and is now at Queen Mary University of London, UK.
'The octopus provided some inspiration. It has no bones or skeletal structure, and it can squeeze through very narrow openings, but stiffen when required,' he said.
The robotic arm works through a combination of air and granules. When air is pumped in, the granules inside it are able to move freely and allow both flexibility and a large range of motion. When the air is sucked out again, the granules clump together, making the structure stiff and rigid in the required position.
The system also helps surgeons to deal with complex soft tissue movements and uncertain situations, such as when organs shift, or move with the patient's breathing and heartbeat.
With keyhole surgery, the instruments are inserted through narrow openings and they have to pivot around that small incision. And because the surgeon is unable to use a hand directly to feel inside the body, for example to identify the borders of a tumour, a successful operation is dependent on visual feedback from a camera at the end of the robotic arm.
So among the next steps is developing technology allowing surgeons to receive feedback from the operation site through touch, a field known as haptics.
In addition to joysticks and data gloves, haptic devices include possibilities such as vibratory actuators and pressure pads on the surgeon's arm to simulate the feeling of operating through a much larger incision.
Dr Helge Wurdemann, project manager of STIFF-FLOP, said: 'In particular, haptics has great potential to offer benefits to surgeons but, more importantly, to patients' outcomes, when it comes to interventions that are less and less invasive.'
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