%0 Thesis %1 Ascari2005 %A Ascari, Luca %D 2005 %K imported %P -- %T A novel robotic system for the exploration of the spinal cord %X This thesis presents the design and implementation of an integrated image-guided robot-assisted endoscopic system (from here it will be referred to by the single word System ) for the safe navigation within the spinal meningeal space, providing the surgeon with the direct vision of the structures (i.e. spinal cord, roots, vessels) and with the possibility of performing some particularly useful operations, like laser coagulation, local electrostimulation, local injection of drugs or cleaning procedures of arachnoidal fibrosis. A more detailed explanation of the medical aspects (anatomical and physiological constraints, needs, state of the art, requirements) as well as a description of the problem from a scientific and technical viewpoint are given in chapter 1. The many peculiarities of the environment and the necessity of preserving the inner delicate structures make the development of the System a real challenge from the scientific and technical viewpoints: the designed System will necessarily be complex, requiring the design and implementation of several sub-systems. For this reason, the approach followed during the design and development of the System consisted in a continuous sequence of modeling and prototypical implementations of the models: the final configuration is the resultof a seriesof improvements; for the sake of clarity of presentation, I will try to separatemodeling from implementation, even though this will oblige the reader to frequent “jumps�? from chapter 2 to chapter 3, where the implementation of the System is described. The experiments performed to validate the sub-systems and the whole System as well, are presented in chapter 4. Chapter 5 reports the conclusions, the discussion and outlines the possible future work. In appendix A the schematics and the layout of the Electronic Control Unit are shown, while appendix B contains the proposed and accepted simplified surgical protocol used for subarachnoid space endoscopy with the System .

@phdthesis{Ascari2005, abstract = {This thesis presents the design and implementation of an integrated image-guided robot-assisted endoscopic system (from here it will be referred to by the single word System ) for the safe navigation within the spinal meningeal space, providing the surgeon with the direct vision of the structures (i.e. spinal cord, roots, vessels) and with the possibility of performing some particularly useful operations, like laser coagulation, local electrostimulation, local injection of drugs or cleaning procedures of arachnoidal fibrosis. A more detailed explanation of the medical aspects (anatomical and physiological constraints, needs, state of the art, requirements) as well as a description of the problem from a scientific and technical viewpoint are given in chapter 1. The many peculiarities of the environment and the necessity of preserving the inner delicate structures make the development of the System a real challenge from the scientific and technical viewpoints: the designed System will necessarily be complex, requiring the design and implementation of several sub-systems. For this reason, the approach followed during the design and development of the System consisted in a continuous sequence of modeling and prototypical implementations of the models: the final configuration is the resultof a seriesof improvements; for the sake of clarity of presentation, I will try to separatemodeling from implementation, even though this will oblige the reader to frequent “jumps�? from chapter 2 to chapter 3, where the implementation of the System is described. The experiments performed to validate the sub-systems and the whole System as well, are presented in chapter 4. Chapter 5 reports the conclusions, the discussion and outlines the possible future work. In appendix A the schematics and the layout of the Electronic Control Unit are shown, while appendix B contains the proposed and accepted simplified surgical protocol used for subarachnoid space endoscopy with the System .}, added-at = {2009-11-19T14:40:48.000+0100}, author = {Ascari, Luca}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/28bbbed6ca19153a0e9b761c43191c04c/photonics}, interhash = {7e58a72ecc7dfa4d87d3e53e6c1f5df6}, intrahash = {8bbbed6ca19153a0e9b761c43191c04c}, keywords = {imported}, owner = {gianluca}, pages = {--}, refid = {450}, school = {Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna}, timestamp = {2009-11-19T14:40:49.000+0100}, title = {A novel robotic system for the exploration of the spinal cord}, year = 2005 }