SBIR Phase I: Optimization of a Novel Compliant Mechanisms-Based Laparoscope Cleaning Device

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is a novel product for ensuring proper visualization through intraoperative scopes during laparoscopic procedures. Worldwide, 13 million laparoscopic surgeries are performed each year. Surgeons require proper visualization of the operating site which entails continually wiping the lens, reinserting the scope, relocating the surgical site, and then resuming the surgery. This difficulty in visualization results in the need to temporarily halt the operation and potentially lose critical focus of the surgical area in order to restore the surgical field of view. Surgeons repeat this process an average of six times per hour, accounting for nearly 1/3 of the operating time. This time delay results in an estimated loss of 336,000 hours of operating room procedure time and $1.25 billion in productivity losses in the United States alone each year. This SBIR Phase 1 project will develop operating prototypes of a novel, flexible, micro-mechanical mechanism with multiple degrees of freedom. The device integrates flexible and conforming mechanisms with a wiping blade to enable real time wiping of surgical scopes and ports. This technology enables surgeons to quickly and intraoperatively re-enable laparoscope vision within the patient. The technical challenges of the project include the development of a computational engineering model that optimizes user control of off-axis stiffness, force response, and stress. The team will also need to ensure the solution has sufficient fatigue life and predictable mechanical response throughout the duration of the procedure. Computational engineering models will be used to design and develop several manufacturable prototypes, which will be tested and validated with several currently available laparoscopes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.