The surgeon's eye

The Surgeon's Eye

Minimally invasive surgery has many advantages for patients, but is more challenging for surgeons than traditional open surgery. Because surgical instruments are inserted into the patient through small openings, the surgeon does not have a direct view of the surgical site. Therefore, a minimally invasive camera, or endoscope, is required and must be operated by an assistant while the surgeon guides the surgical instruments. In many cases, the surgical team is assembled in an ad hoc manner, and the collaboration between surgeon and assistant is not optimal. Therefore, the project "The surgeon's eye" aims to develop robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery in which a robot guides an endoscope according to the surgeon's wishes. While the articulated robotic endoscope stably visualizes the surgical site, machine learning-generated algorithms ensure that the endoscope "knows" which objects to focus on to provide the surgeon with the desired view. The project aims to develop, test and verify a steerable, articulated endoscope camera. The project is led by the University of Basel and implemented in collaboration with KIT. Eucor - The European Campus supports the consortium with the funding instrument Seed Money in the funding line "Research and Innovation".