Designing New Continuum Robot Structures for Surgery

with Caleb Rucker, 
B. Ray Thompson Professor,
University of Tennessee Knoxville

December 5, 2024
2:00 PM, 310 Kelly Hall​

Continuum robots are slender elastic structures that can be remotely actuated and steered, with many potential applications in medicine. Many such structures have been explored by the robotics community over the last two decades, including systems based on tendon/cable-drive, concentric pre-curved tubes, shape-memory actuation, and fluidic actuation. In our recent work we explore a new method based on asymmetrically laser-machined, concentric tubes that are welded together at their tips.  Pushing and pulling the bases of the tubes then controls deformation in the laser-machined sections. These concentric push-pull robots have great potential as manipulators that can be delivered through flexible endoscopes, to steer diagnostic and therapeutic tools with greater dexterity and range than is currently possible. In this talk I will discuss the design and mechanics modeling of these robots and recent progress we have made toward a teleoperated system for removing colon cancer minimally invasively.  I will also highlight the process of translating this technology from the lab into commercial products at EndoTheia.​

Caleb Rucker received his B.S. degree in engineering mechanics and mathematics from Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN, USA, in 2006, and his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, in 2011.  He is currently a Thompson Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA, where he directs the Robotics, Engineering, Applied Continuum Mechanics, and Healthcare Laboratory (REACH Lab). His research interests include design and control of robots and mechanics-based modeling of soft and continuum robots. Dr. Rucker was the recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2017.  He co-founded medical-device startup company EndoTheia, Inc. in 2018 and serves as its Chief Science Officer.​