Force adaptive robotically assisted endomicroscopy for intraoperative tumour identification
For effective tumour margin definition for cancer surgery, there is an increasing demand for the development of real-time intraoperative tissue biopsy techniques. Recent advances in miniaturized biophotonics probes have permitted the development of endomicroscopy techniques that are clinically attractive. With these approaches, cellular-level imaging can be achieved through millimetre-scale flexible probes and be performed in real-time, in vivo and in situ. Due to the limited field of view and flexibility of these probes, however, large area tissue coverage for acquiring histology-like images over complex three-dimensional surfaces is challenging. This is particularly the case because current surgical robots, such as the Da \(\hbox {Vinci}^\circledR \), lack haptic feedback, making it difficult to maintain optimum tissue contact when these probes are deployed in vivo.
endomicroscopy endoscopy adaptive control robotic-assisted mis mosaicking image guidance