Pr. Kenji Kawashima

Department of Information Physics and Computing

Graduate School of Information Science and Technology

The University of Tokyo

Title: Design and Control of Pneumatically-driven Surgical Robot

Biography:

Kenji Kawashima received the Ph.D. degree in engineering from the Department of Control Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 1997. From 1997 to 2000, he was a Research Assistant with the Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology. He was an Associate Professor with the Precision and Intelligence Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology. From 2013 to 2020, he was a Professor with Tokyo Medical and Dental University. In 2014, funded University Start-up Riverfield Inc. Since April 2020, he has been a Professor with The University of Tokyo. His research interests include medical robotics, control engineering, and fluid measurement and control.

Abstract:

I will discuss the design and control of a pneumatically-driven robot used in minimally invasive surgery (MIS), one of the most active areas of research and development in surgical robotics. The robot consists of a master manipulator and a follower robot. The follower robot consists of a base unit, multiple robot arms, and robotic forceps attached to those robot arms. The robot arm must design to move around a pivot point. The robotic forceps have a wrist joint and a grasper at the tip. Each joint is usually wire-driven by electric motor with reduction gears. We have developed robotic forceps driven directly by a pneumatic cylinder. The backdrivability of the pneumatic cylinder allows the gripping force to be estimated from the cylinder pressure and position. The master manipulator is designed considering the workspace of the human arm. Finally, a human robot cooperative control method using machine learning is presented.

Biography:

Jeff Ge is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University, the State University of New York, and served as the department chair from 2016 to 2023. He received a dual B.S. degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1985, an M.S. from University of Pennsylvania in 1986, and a Ph.D. from University of California, Irvine, in 1990, all in Mechanical Engineering. His primary areas of research interest include computational kinematic geometry, mechanism design, and robotics.

Jeff Ge was Chair of USCToMM, the U.S. Committee for the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms (2012-2016) and was elected and served as the Chair of Constitution Committee of IFToMM (2019-2023).

Jeff Ge is a Fellow of ASME and was elected to the Executive Committee of ASME Design Engineering Division (2015-2021) including the Committee Chair (2020). He served also as on the Executive Committee of ASME Mechanisms and Robotics for three years including the Committee Chair in 2011. Currently he is a founding member of ASME Technology Group on Robotics and a member of the Editorial Board of ASME book series on robotics.

Jeff Ge organized and chaired many technical sessions of ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference as well as ASME Design Automation conference. He was Program Chair (2007) and Conference Chair (2008) of ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference as well as General Technical Program Chair of 2006 and 2008 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC) and Computers in Engineering (CIE).

Jeff Ge is currently the inaugural Editor-in-Chief for the new ASME Journal, Letters in Translational Robotics. He was Co-Editor of ASME Journal of Mechanical Design (2021-2024), an Associate Editor of ASME Journal of Mechanical Design (2003-2006), ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics (2010-2016) as well as International Journal of Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines (2010-2016).

Jeff Ge is a recipient of several awards from ASME including Dedicated Service Award (2023), AT Yang Memorial Award for Theoretical Kinematics (2022), and Mechanisms and Robotics Award (2021).

Pr. Geffrey Ge

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Stony Brook University

Title: Computational Kinematic Geometry and its Applications in Machine Design and Robotics.