i-Snake Surgical Robot for Minimally Invasive Surgery

(Wellcome Trust funded,  Profs Yang and Darzi + Daniel Elson, Julian Teare and Thanos Athanasiou)

Minimally Invasive (or so called “Keyhole”) surgery was one of the great medical advances of the twentieth century, allowing sophisticated surgical operations to be carried out with little trauma. However, there are limits to the types of procedures that can be carried out this way.  The new ‘i-Snake’, aims to provide a platform to extend the use of this surgical technique, breaking new ground across the fields of surgery and engineering.

The ‘i-Snake’ will incorporate state of the art imaging and intuitive manipulation technologies, allowing surgeons to carry out more complex and demanding procedures within the body, previously only possible using more invasive surgical approaches. The ‘i-Snake’ robot will use fully articulated joints powered by special motors, with multiple sensing mechanisms and imaging tools at its ‘head’, to extend the vision and dexterity of the surgeon, allowing them to navigate difficult and restrictive regions of the body.

Among the many possible applications of i-Snake are the clinical investigation of the alimentary tract, or complex, multi-vessel coronary bypass surgery. The cost benefits that the ‘i-Snake’ will introduce include earlier, cheaper and less invasive treatment, faster recovery and procedure times and intangible benefits through an increase in patient care and quality of life.

The project represents a unique cross-disciplinary collaboration within Imperial in imaging, sensing and robotics involving Department of Computing, Department of Surgery, and the new Institute of Biomedical Engineering. It also highlights the increasingly important role of medical image computing in reshaping the future of medical technology.”

Contact: Prof Guang-Zhong Yang at g.z.yang@imperial.ac.uk