Abstract
Rhythm disorders are becoming increasingly prevalent with population aging. Heart failure is the inability of the heart to pump sufficient blood to the body, leading to significant morbidity and mortality. People with partial or full loss of motor function for their limbs have difficulties to perform basic activities of daily living. Gastrointestinal tract and the accessory organs of digestion are responsible for human death from cancer than any other systems in the human body. Existing robotic systems and treatment methods for these diseases are unable to meet the complex requirements for conducting successful interventions in these challenging settings, due to limitations in size, rigid structure, payload, flexibility, sensing components, and haptic feedback, all of which constrain their potential. Haptic or touch feedback plays a vital role in enhancing the human performances and safety in skilled tasks, especially in teleoperated surgical systems. It has been proven to enhance the user’s ability to effectively explore the patient’s tissues and manipulate surgical tools that are remote in scale and distance. However, current hand-worn instruments that can reproduce the human hand’s motion and amplify human sense of touch are still limited. Soft robotic technologies have a potential to transform the way human safely interacts with intelligent machines. The motion of soft robotic bodies is affected their geometry and material properties and therefore manufacturing methods are vital. In this talk, Dr. Do will introduce new approaches on the design and fabrication of advanced soft robotic technologies for the development of new class of flexible surgical robotic systems, cardiac assistive devices, advanced haptic interface, smart textile, and soft exoskeletons. Finally, he will discuss the future challenges in these research areas and propose solutions that can further enhance their practicality in healthcare sector.
Short Bio
Dr Thanh Nho Do is currently a Scientia Senior Lecturer at Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering (GSBmE), UNSW Sydney, Australia. He leads the UNSW Medical Robotics Lab (www.medicalrobotics-lab.com). He was awarded PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering (Surgical Robotics) from the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He was a postdoctoral scholar at California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), USA. He also worked as a Research Fellow at the school of MAE, NTU, Singapore. Dr Do has received several awards such as the 2022 Google Research Scholar Award, 2020 Best of Advanced Materials Technologies, 2022 NSW CRN Professional Development Award, 2021 Arc PGC Outstanding Supervisor Award. He is currently holding 9 patents and few of them have been licensed/commercialised. Dr Do has contributed to attract ~AUD$27M in research fundings as lead and/or investigator. His main research interests include the development of flexible surgical systems, soft robotics, haptics, heart assistive device, soft exoskeletons, smart textiles, artificial muscles, nonlinear modelling, and control. His works have also attracted substantial media coverages internationally.
