Active Projects
Steerable Laser Interstitial Thermotherapy (SLIT) Robot for Brain Tumor Therapy
The goal of this project is to develop a new robotic system that can navigate inside brain tumors and perform laser interstitial thermotherapy at multiple locations under intra-operative MRI guidance. This ongoing research work is in the collaboration with Dr. Behnam Badie at City of Hope National Medical Center and Dr. Juan Hernández-Cordero at National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Current Researchers: Saeed Rezaeian, Hengjie Chen, Julio Ceja, Jennifer Zheng; Previous Researchers: Joel Eusebio Tan
Adaptive Wearable Robots for Movement Assistance via Bio-Inspired Sensorimotor Integration
The goal of this project is to develop soft wearable robots with variable impedance that can be regulated via bio-inspired sensorimotor integration. This ongoing research work is in the collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Realmuto in Mechanical Engineering at UCR and Dr. Terence Sanger at Children's Health of Orange County.
Current Researchers: Kyungjoon Lee, Parmida AfshariNejad, Fnu Heman, Alyssa Shen; Previous Researchers: Yi-Shiun Hung
Dexterous Robots for MRI-Guided Skull Base Surgery
The goal of this project is to develop highly dexterous meso-scale tendon-driven robots for transsphenoidal skull base surgery under intra-operative MRI guidance. This ongoing research work is in the collaboration with Dr. Behnam Badie at City of Hope National Medical Center and Dr. Xiaoping Hu in Biomedical Engineering at UCR.
Current Researchers: Boshen Qi, Hengjie Chen, Jiajie Zeng, Xinyu Lu, Yuqi Wang; Previous Researchers: Alexander Totah, Purab Balani
Vision-Guided Flexible Robots for Harvesting the Interior of Tree Crops
The goal of this project is to develop a new type of agricultural robots that can detect, localize, and harvest interior tree crops. A macro-scale telescopic cable-driven robot equipped with moving cameras will be designed, manufactured, and tested. This ongoing research work is in the collaboration with Dr. Salman Asif in Electrical Engineering at UCR.
Current Researchers: Arshia Akbari, Ryan Deuling, Annabelle Yang, Daniel Chow, Patrick Fong; Previous Researchers: Sarvesh Saini, Lucas Tian, Griffith Gatpandan
Steerable Robots for MRI-Guided Intracranial Delivery of Therapeutics
The goal of this project is to develop a robotic system that can deliver T-cells at multiple locations inside malignant brain tumors via a steerable robotic needle under MRI guidance. This ongoing research work is in the collaboration with Dr. Behnam Badie at City of Hope National Medical Center.
Current Researchers: Saeed Rezaeian, Alyssa Shen, Christopher Bhardwaj; Previous Researchers: Chandan Sidhu
Microfabricated Mesoscale Soft Robots with Embodied Intelligence for Minimally Invasive Surgery
The long-term goal of this project is to develop a new type of mesoscale soft robots that can be manipulated in the soft-tissue environment dexterously, dynamically, and safely. Mesoscale robots featuring diameter from submillimeter to 10s mm are small enough to navigate inside the human body and powerful enough to operate on soft tissue. The mesoscale soft robots developed from this project will have the potential to transform minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This project will focus on the development of new design and fabrication techniques for mesoscale soft robots based on shape memory alloy. Microfabrication will be harnessed to develop mesoscale SMA actuators and thin-film sensors precisely.
Current Researchers: Ryan Deuling
Flexible Robotic Evacuators for Brain Tumor Therapy
The goal of this project is to develop a flexible device that can be transported through curved minimally invasive neurosurgical robots and deployed as an end effector to debride brain tumors safely, effectively, and efficiently. This ongoing research work is in the collaboration with Dr. Behnam Badie at City of Hope National Medical Center.
Current Researchers: Saeed Rezaeian, Arshia Akbari, Jason Knowles, Julio Ceja; Previous Researchers: Sarvesh Saini
Comprehensive Tissue Disease Diagnosis Using a Multimodal Robotic System
The goal of this project is to develop an autonomous system consisting of a mesoscale robot equipped with flexible ultrasound and Raman spectroscopy to detect abnormal tissues and diagnose tissue diseases. This ongoing research work is in the collaboration with Dr. Chen Li and Dr. Salman Asif at UCR, Dr. Sheng Xu at UCSD, and Dr. Mustafa Raoof at City of Hope National Medical Center.
Current Researchers: Boshen Qi; Previous Researchers: Chau Minh Giang
Next-Generation Robotic Catheters
The goal of this project is to investigate new design and manufacturing techniques for developing next-generation robotic catheters with application to challenging cardiovascular procedures such as pulmonary embolism removal and artificial heart valve placement. Two directions are under investigation: i) How to create versatile multi-scale catheters using shape memory alloys? ii) How to create and control high-DoF hydraulic soft robots.
Current Researchers: Vinesh Manian, Keiju Oda, Ethan Hsu, Leo Hernandez, Steven Vu, Kyungjoon Lee, Parmida AfshariNejad; Previous Researchers: Sophia Sevic
Previous Projects
MRI/CT-Compatible Intracerebral Hemorrhage Evacuation (NICHE) Robots
The goal of this project was to develop meso-scale robots for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) evacuation. Novel actuators were built based on shape memory alloys and enabled procedures under intra-operative MRI/CT guidance. This research work was completed by Dr. Jun Sheng during his Ph.D. training under Dr. Jaydev Desai's supervision at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Flexible Catheter Robots for Atrial Fibrillation Diagnosis and Treatment
The goal of this project was to develop highly steerable and flexible catheter robots that can navigate through vasculatures and perform complex procedures in left atrium to identify tissue to ablate using fiberoptic sensing and perform radiofrequency ablation. This research work was completed by Dr. Jun Sheng during his Ph.D. training under Dr. Jaydev Desai's supervision at Georgia Institute of Technology.
