BioRobotics Laboratory, Harvard University
The Biorobotics Laboratory at Harvard University in the USA is geared towards research on the role of sensing and mechanical designs in motor control in robots and humans. The lab’s work draws upon various disciplines that include biomechanics, systems analysis, and neurophysiology.
Although analysis and simulation play a vital part, the lab’s main approach is through experimentation. In collaboration with various industrial partners, the lab developed applications of this research in biomedical instrumentation, teleoperated robots, and also intelligent sensors.
The laboratory’s main research topics include Biomedical Modeling and Surgical Planning. Here the lab knows that heart valve repair is technically very difficult, but by providing surgeons with an anatomically and biomechanically accurate computer model of the heart and a patient’s heart valve, they could be able to pre-operate surgical planning and potentially improve the outcome of surgery. Under this topic, research includes Mitral Valve Segmentation from Clinical 4D Ultrasound, Computational Modeling of Heart Valves for Surgical Planning, and Interactive Surgical Planning.
In order to perform some procedures inside a patient’s heart, a cardiopulmonary bypass is required in order for the surgeon to operate on a relaxed open heart. And although this has been widely practiced, studies show that this procedure has numerous adverse effects. The Lab researched and developed the Robotic Surgery, allowing surgeons to work directly inside a beating heart. Under this research topic are the Robotic Catheter, Real Time 3D Ultrasonic Mosaicing and Visualization, and the 3D Ultrasonic Guided Robotic Motion Compensation.
Other main topics of the laboratory’s researches include Robotic Hands and Tactile Sensing, Rehabilitation Robotics, and Haptics.
