Active Projects

Laser Interstitial Thermotherapy Robots 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.

Researchers: Saeed Rezaeian, Hengjie Chen, Julio Ceja, Joel Eusebio Tan (alumnus)

Funding Agency: NIH NIBIB (2023-2026), UCOP CRCC (2023-2024)


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.

Researchers: Saeed Rezaeian, Chandan Sidhu (alumnus)

Funding Agency: CUBRI (2022-2024)


Adaptive Wearable Robots for Movement Assistance

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.

Researchers: Kyungjoon Lee, Parmida AfshariNejad

Funding Agency: NSF NRI (2022-2026)


 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.

Researchers: Boshen Qi, Hengjie Chen

Funding Agency: NA

 


 Microfabricated Mesoscale Shape Memory Alloy Robots

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. 

Researchers: Ryan Deuling

Funding Agency: NA


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.

Researchers: Sarvesh Saini

Funding Agency: UCOP CRCC (2023-2024)


Soft Continuum Robots for Harvesting Interior 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.

Researchers: Arshia Akbari, Ryan Deuling, Lucas Tian, Griffith Gatpandan (alumnus)

Funding Agency: USDA NIFA (2023-2025), UCR OASIS (2022-2023)


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.

Researchers: Sophia Sevic, Vinesh Manian, Keiju Oda, Kyungjoon Lee, Parmida AfshariNejad

Funding Agency: UCR Research Minigrants (2023-2024)


Raman-Guided Robotic Brain Tumor Biopsy

The goal of this project is to develop an autonomous system consisting of a robotic brain biopsy needle and a Raman probe along the needle to precisely detect and extract viable brain tumor tissue and avoid blood vessels. This ongoing research work is in the collaboration with Dr. Chen Li in Mechanical Engineering at UCR and Dr. Behnam Badie at City of Hope National Medical Center.

Researchers: Chau Minh Giang (alumns)

Funding Agency: NA


 


Previous Projects

MRI/CT-Compatible Intracerebral Hemorrhage Evacuation (NICHE) Robots
niche

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
afib

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.

 

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