Alex successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled New Miniaturized Wristed Instruments for In-Office Endoscopic Laser Surgery. He is the first PhD graduate of the COMET Lab!

This paper, co-authored by Ethan, Nick, and Loris won the Best Paper Award for Manufacturing Reproducibility at RobotSoft 2024!

Kalina successfully defended his Robotics MS thesis entitled Making Concentric Tube Robots More Accessible: An Open-Source Platform with Easy-to-Source Components and Guided Learning Materials on December 4, 2023.

Chris successfully passed his Robotics MS defense on April 16 with a thesis entitled An Experimental Study of the Mechanical Response of Nylon 12 Tubing: Practical Implications for Use in Concentric Tube Robots.

Congratulations to Kalina and Chris!

Dr. Fichera was invited to give a talk at SPIE Photonics West 2024 in San Francisco, CA. The talk was entitled Robots, lasers, and the quest for incisionless surgery. Watch the recording here.

Dr. Fichera received the NSF CAREER award! Over the next five years, our lab will look into energy-based tool-tissue interactions to help build the next generation of surgical robots.

Our paper entitled Benefits of Side-Firing Optical Fibers in Endoscopic Laser Treatment of the Larynx was featured on the cover page of the May 2023 issue of the Laryngoscope!

Our paper entitled Benefits of Side-Firing Optical Fibers in Endoscopic Laser Treatment of the Larynx was accepted for publication in The Laryngoscope, one of the most prestigious journals in the field of Otolaryngology!

Our paper entitled When the End Effector is a Laser: a Review of Robotics in Laser Surgery was accepted for publication in Advanced Intelligent Systems! This manuscript is a collaboration between our lab and Prof. Sheila Russo’s group at Boston University.

Alex and Nick passed their qualifying exams and are now officially PhD Candidates. Congratulations to them both!

Alex presented his recent work on endoscopic laser surgery of the vocal folds at the “Frontiers of Endoluminal Interventions” at ICRA 2022. Read the paper here.

Dr. Fichera was a guest on Health Matters, a WCCA show produced by the Worcester District Medical Society. Dr. Fichera and his host, Dr. Lynda Young, talked about surgical robotics innovation at WPI and beyond. Watch the recording here.

Nick was awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP). This award will provide support for his doctoral studies for the next three years. Congratulations to him!

Our paper entitled Multi Jet Fusion of Nylon-12: A Viable Method to 3D-print Concentric Tube Robots? was accepted for inclusion in the proceedings of the 2022 Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics. Congrats to all the authors: Kalani, Brandon, Colin, Jesse, and Nick! See you in London!

Dr. Fichera has been invited to give a talk during a workshop at the upcoming International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR) in Atlanta, GA. The talk will be entitled Lasers + Surgical Robots: Is the Whole Greater than the Sum of Its Parts?

The article entitled Identification of Tissue Optical Properties During Thermal Laser-Tissue Interactions: An Ensemble Kalman Filter-Based Approach, previously posted on arXiv, has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of for Numerica Methods in Biomedical Engineering.

Nick got a paper accepted in the Journal of Medical Robotics Research. The manuscript is entitled Beyond Constant Curvature: A New Mechanics Model for Unidirectional Notched-Tube Continuum Wrists.

Dr. Fichera co-authored an article entitled Trans-eustachian Middle Ear Endoscopy Using a Steerable Distal-Camera Tipped Endoscope, which will appear in a forthcoming issue of Otology and Neurotology.

Our group got a paper accepted at IEEE EMBC 2021. The paper is entitled Optical Fiber Coupling System for Steerable Endoscopic Instruments, and it is a collaboration with Prof. Yuxiang Liu’s laboratory at WPI.

We also posted a pre-print on arXiv entitled Identification of Tissue Optical Properties During Thermal Laser-Tissue Interactions: Approach and Preliminary Evaluation. This project is in collaboration with Prof. Andrea Arnold (WPI).

Dr. Fichera co-authored an article for Frontiers in Robotics and AI entitled “μRALP and beyond: Micro-technologies and systems for robot-assisted endoscopic laser microsurgery.” The article will appear on the journal website.

Sabrina, Phil, Sam, and Zhongchuan won the Robotics Engineering Department Award for their senior design project entitled SCREAM 3.0: Super-elastic Continuum Robot for Endoscopic Articulation and Manipulation. They also won the award for the best video during project presentation day!

Sabrina and Isabelle were recognized with individual awards for their achievements during their time at WPI.

Congratulations to all!

Jesse successfully defended his Robotics MS thesis entitled Making Concentric Tube Robots More Accessible: A New Open-Source Design Made of 3D-Printed and Other Easy-to-Source Materials on April 21. He will join the MedLab at Vanderbilt University in the Fall of 2021 to continue his studies as a Ph.D. student.

Nick successfully passed his Robotics MS defense on April 19 with a thesis entitled A New Mechanics Model for Continuum Notched-Tube Wrists that Accounts for Tendon Friction and Material Nonlinearities, and he will continue his graduate studies at WPI.

Congratulations to Jesse and Nick!

Our paper entitled “On the Merits of Using Angled Fiber Tips in Office-based Laser Surgery of the Vocal Folds,” co-authored by Isabelle, Jesse, and Alex won the best student paper award in the Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling track at SPIE Medical Imaging 2021!

Dr. Fichera wrote a focus article for Science Robotics entitled “Bringing the light inside the body to perform better surgery.” The article will appear on the January 2021 issue of the journal.

Dr. Fichera will give an invited talk entitled “On the role of autonomy in robot-assisted laser surgery” during the upcoming IROS 2020 workshop entitled Autonomous System in Medicine: Current Challenges in Design, Modeling, Perception, Control and Applications.

Our lab got two papers accepted at SPIE Medical Imaging 2021: “On the Merits of Using Angled Fiber Tips in Office-based Laser Surgery of the Vocal Folds” by Isabelle, Jesse, and Alex; and “Augmented Immersive Telemedicine through Camera View Manipulation Controlled by Head Motions” - this latter paper is a collaboration with the FUSION Lab.

Our abstract entitled “Introducing Steerable Laser Fibers in Office-Based Laryngology Procedures” was accepted for presentation at the Fall Voice Conference. Congratulations to Isabelle, Jesse, and Alex!

Our laboratory received a $430k NIH grant for the project proposal “Flexible Steerable Laser Probe for Office-based Laryngeal Interventions,” with PI: Loris Fichera, Co-I Shawn Liu (ME) and Co-I Thomas L. Carroll (ENT doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital)8

In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, our laboratory will move to remote (home) operations for the foreseeable future to ensure the safety and well-being of all its members. We will continue to monitor the information and the guidelines issued by WPI officials and by the local, state, and federal government to determine when it will finally be safe to resume regular lab activities.

Dr. Fichera gave an invited talk entitled “Combining robotics and machine intelligence to enable advanced treatment modalities in the head and neck” at the monthly meeting of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (Boston Chapter).

Our laboratory was awarded a $60k TRIAD seed grant from WPI for the proposal entitled “Photoacoustic Imaging of Neurovascular Bundles for Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Pelvic Surgery.” The goal of this 1-year project, which will be carried out in collaboration with Profs. Kai Zhang, Greg Fischer, and Ben Nephew, is to explore the creation of a spectroscopic photoacoustic imaging system to aid in the detection of neurovascular bundles (NVBs) during robot-assisted pelvic surgical procedures, including radical prostatectomies.

Dr. Fichera has been selected to serve on the advisory board of the WPI Office of Undergraduate Research. In this role, he will provide inputs to improve the engagement of undergraduate students in research projects, and help promote existing opportunities for early research experiences at WPI and beyond among undergraduate students.

Summer has been busy in the Comet Lab!

Shravan successfully defended his Robotics MS thesis entitled A mixed reality framework for surgical navigation: approach and preliminary results on April 23, and will now continue his studies as a Ph.D. student at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Karim successfully passed his Biomedical Engineering MS defense on July 23 with a thesis entitled Towards the automatic control of laser ablation for surgical applications.

Nick completed the requirements for the non-thesis MS degree in Robotics on August 16, and will move to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he will pursue a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.

Congratulations to Shravan, Karim, and Nick!

Dr. Fichera gave invited talks at the 3rd World Congress on Endoscopic Ear Surgery on the role of robotics in endoscopic ear surgery and advances in endoscopic imaging of the middle ear.

Our paper “Towards Flexible Steerable Instruments for Office-Based Laryngeal Surgery” was nominated as one of the “top ten papers that describe medical devices with potential for commercialization” at the Design of Medical Devices Conference, and it will participate in the Three in Five Competition. Congratulations to Kevin, Cory, Ben and Zach!