Surgical Robotics — Control Systems & Inverse Kinematics

Sep 30, 2023 · 1 min read
Laproscopic surgical robot system
projects

During my time at Sina Robotics and Medical Innovators, I worked as a Mechanical and Control Systems Engineer on an advanced robotic platform for minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. My work focused on real-time control, inverse kinematics, and the surgeon-robot interface.

The System

The platform is a multi-degree-of-freedom surgical robot with dual manipulator arms, a surgeon console, and a training simulator for laparoscopic procedures. It was designed for telesurgery, enabling a surgeon to operate remotely over a network connection. During our testing, we successfully demonstrated this capability across two separate hospitals: the surgeon console was located in one hospital while the robot performed the procedure in another, carrying out a real surgical operation in real time.

Multi-DOF surgical robot in the operating room

Control & Kinematics

I developed real-time control systems for the robotic arms using TwinCAT 3 (Beckhoff) and implemented inverse kinematics algorithms enabling precise, coordinated motion for surgical tasks. I also built Python-based graphical interfaces for intuitive surgeon-robot interaction.

Testing and validating inverse kinematics

Surgeon Training

Beyond engineering, I trained surgeons and medical students on operating the robot, safety protocols, and clinical best practices using the simulation platform.

Surgeon practicing laparoscopic procedures on the robot

Surgery room

Technical Stack

TwinCAT 3 · Python · MATLAB · Real-time Control Systems · Inverse Kinematics · Laparoscopic Robotics

Ehsan Sharafian
Authors
PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering
I am a third-year PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maine’s Biorobotics and Biomechanics Lab, supervised by Dr. Babak Hejrati. My research focuses on developing wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based sensing systems for real-time gait analysis and fall prevention in elderly adults.