Health robotics

Research Lead/s :  
Prof. Shoudong Huang,  
Dr. Liang Zhao

The demand for hip replacements for treating osteoarthritis has grown substantially worldwide. In Australia, around 44,000 total hip replacements (THR) are carried out in 2020, with a median cost of AUD 26,350 for each operation, and the number of THR is expected to be 79,000 in 2030. A critical step in THR is to precisely cut a smooth hemisphere into the socket of the hip bone (acetabulum) such that the acetabular component can be accurately fitted into the acetabulum. Regular non-robotic total hip replacements may be associated with inaccurate placement of this acetabular component leading to complications such as dislocation of the hip, leg length discrepancies, or early implant failure. Such poor outcomes cause dissatisfaction with the patient experience, leading to repeated surgeries with the added stress to the patients and expense to the health system. Using robotic techniques in hip replacement surgery can minimise surgical errors, significantly improve the implant position accuracy and reduce the incidence of dislocation, thus accelerate the patient rehabilitation process. However, the existing robotics techniques in hip replacement surgery are expensive and have limitations. These make it difficult for robotics techniques to apply in common THR surgeries.

This project aims to develop a new low-cost robot system for optimising total hip replacement operation. In order to enable a more efficient and accurate hip replacement, the robot system will use a novel, less invasive approach to autonomously cut a smooth surface into the acetabulum using a burr. This unique approach enables the hip replacement to be proceed without hip dislocation leading to significantly less soft tissue trauma and a more rapid recovery and rehabilitation for the patient. Using a burr can result in much smoother surface than reamer that is typically used. The robot system to be developed will use the less expensive off-the-shelf UR10 robot from Universal Robots. This project will be led by two world leading researchers in robotics at UTS:RI and one experienced knee and hip specialist. This low-cost robot system with the novel less invasive cutting approach presents a real opportunity to reduce recovery time for patients and associated health system costs substantially. 

Research Strength : Robot manipulator path planning and control, sensing, perception and navigation 

Research Partner : PMSW Research Pty Ltd 

Research Team : Richardo Khonasty and Tiancheng Li

1. Real-time Robust Simultaneous Catheter and Environment Modelling for Endovascular Navigation

2. Registration-Free Simultaneous Catheter and Environment Modelling for Endovascular Interventions

3. 3D Shape Recovery of Deformable Soft-tissue with Computed Tomography and Depth Scan

4. 3D Reconstruction of Colon Structures and Textures from Stereo Colonoscopic Images

5. Dense Isometric Non-Rigid Shape-From-Motion Based on Graph Optimization and Edge Selection

6. Real-Time Large-Scale Dense Deformable SLAM System in Minimal Invasive Surgery

7. Dynamic Reconstruction of Deformable Soft-Tissue with Stereo Scope in Minimal Invasive Surgery

8. 3D Intra-articular Dense Reconstruction from Arthroscopic Images

9. 3D Reconstruction of Deformable Colon Structures based on Preoperative Model and Deep Neural Network

10. Deep Learning Assisted Automatic Intra-operative 3D Aortic Deformation Reconstruction