Design & Development Track

MRI can offer high resolution 3D imaging with high soft tissue contrast, multi-modality imaging for tumor localization, thermal monitoring, and interactively updated speed, making it ideal for monitoring and guiding interventions. Robotics provide a means to leverage the benefits and address the challenges of real-time guidance of interventions using intraoperative MRI. However, challenges with the high magnetic field, time varying magnetic gradient, strong RF signals, and high sensitivity to RF noise make leveraging these capabilities a challenge.

In this session, Gregory Fischer, Professor and Director of PracticePoint R&D Center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, will describe a modular approach to MRI-compatible robotics that includes software, control hardware, and mechanical systems, that has been used in the development of robotic systems that can perform image-guided diagnosis and therapy, as well as surgical manipulation under live MR imaging. Results from various clinical trials will be presented, along with an update on ongoing research.

For healthcare robotics products, accelerated product development is critical to achieve faster time to market. Through virtual development, next generation robotics systems can be developed quickly and tested with high fidelity. Further integration of virtual development methods into the regulatory process with ASME V&V40 and FDA guidance allows for more confidence to grow with these methods in the medical device industry.

In this session, Stress Engineering Services’ Douglas Marriott will describe how virtual development methods and machine learning can be applied for the development of healthcare robotics systems, including usability evaluation by incorporating augmented reality as part of the development process. He will also detail how the use of virtual development environments be transitioned into a digital twin of the in-field digital environment allowing real-time monitoring, complaint monitoring, in-field training, data collection, and pushing further development updates.

Surgical robotics systems are providing increased surgical efficiency improved patient outcomes, and lower costs through increasingly smaller incisions, intelligent surgical guidance and visualization, and data analytics. Unfortunately, the healthcare sector is not yet able to fully leverage surgical robotics solutions. The need to satisfy demanding and simultaneous requirements for interoperability, reliability, cybersecurity, safety, and performance is a significant barrier to scalable and efficient development of surgical robotic systems (and intelligent connected medical devices). This can be solved with a modern approach to distributed system architecture that is adaptable to evolving requirements and reusable across programs and product lines. In this talk, Darren Porras will discuss surgical robotics applications and the role of distributed software communication frameworks in addressing the demanding and flexible compute needs of connected medical devices from the edge to the cloud.

While ongoing advancements of components for robotics will continue to advance, scaling volumes is highly dependent on an OEM’s ability to be successful in the end user’s environment. An OEM’s ability to understand the value proposition, create a solution along with an integrated user experience, will in large part determine the future of robotic component companies. This session will provide an OEM’s perspective on the mobile robotics opportunity landscape in healthcare and how to approach and gauge the customer’s needs.

Cameras, environmental sensors, smart wearables and other technologies can be used to measure human body gestures and decode brain/physiological signals. As such, they can be used by intelligent machines such as robots, telepresence systems and other smart devices to control and react (pro)actively/passively according to human thought, emotions and behaviors without excessive speech or tiring body gestures. Interaction can just happen intuitively and automatically. This next frontier of human / device interaction is especially useful for wellness & productivity applications.

Successful robotic development projects—those that launch on-time and within budget—is highly dependent on how you prioritize these decisions can ensure that your architectural design efforts will have the most beneficial impact in a timely fashion. Now you are better prepared to address these most common, and critical, architectural decisions.

Examples include:

• Buy a manipulator/mobile platform or create a new one?
• Use a framework like ROS or ROS2, or build your own application-specific software?
• Use code generation or implement your software in a traditional software like C++ or Python?
• How do you connect your components – Ethernet, CAN, Ethercat, Serial, USB, etc. ?
• Software: DDS, GRPC, ZeroMQ
• Utilize open-source licenses or commercial licenses

In this presentation, MedAcuity’s Tom Amlicke will discuss the key decisions that development teams must address to create architectures that will ensure a robot will meet requirements, reduce risk, function as intended, and be delivered on time and on budget.

For healthcare robotics and many other types of systems, temperature is one of the many limiting factors in the motor selection process that can be easily overlooked, but detrimental to the anticipated motor performance. For example, if temperature is not accounted for, the actual torque and speed of the selected motor when in the operating environment may be insufficient for the needs of the system. Also, in many healthcare robotic systems, temperature limitations must be implemented for patient and operator safety and therefore must be considered in the motor selection process.

This talk will highlight the importance of the motor selection process for thermally limited applications. Celera Motion’s Allyson Scott will discuss how motor constant and thermal resistance, parameters specified by motor manufacturers, play a key role in calculating the allow power dissipated in the motor given thermal limitations. Additionally, she walk through a few examples of selecting a motor with and without motor constant consideration, to show how motors can be improperly sized for applications like healthcare robotics where temperature rise is restricted.