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arXiv · 2503.02265

Towards Fluorescence-Guided Autonomous Robotic Partial Nephrectomy on Novel Tissue-Mimicking Hydrogel Phantoms

Ethan Kilmer·Joseph Chen·Jiawei Ge·Preksha Sarda·Richard Cha·Kevin Cleary·Lauren Shepard·Ahmed Ezzat Ghazi·Paul Maria Scheikl·Axel Krieger
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Abstract

Autonomous robotic systems hold potential for improving renal tumor resection accuracy and patient outcomes. We present a fluorescence-guided robotic system capable of planning and executing incision paths around exophytic renal tumors with a clinically relevant resection margin. Leveraging point cloud observations, the system handles irregular tumor shapes and distinguishes healthy from tumorous tissue based on near-infrared imaging, akin to indocyanine green staining in partial nephrectomy. Tissue-mimicking phantoms are crucial for the development of autonomous robotic surgical systems for interventions where acquiring ex-vivo animal tissue is infeasible, such as cancer of the kidney and renal pelvis. To this end, we propose novel hydrogel-based kidney phantoms with exophytic tumors that mimic the physical and visual behavior of tissue, and are compatible with electrosurgical instruments, a common limitation of silicone-based phantoms. In contrast to previous hydrogel phantoms, we mix the material with near-infrared dye to enable fluorescence-guided tumor segmentation. Autonomous real-world robotic experiments validate our system and phantoms, achieving an average margin accuracy of 1.44 mm in a completion time of 69 sec.

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Ethan Kilmer, Joseph Chen, Jiawei Ge, Preksha Sarda, Richard Cha, Kevin Cleary, Lauren Shepard, Ahmed Ezzat Ghazi, Paul Maria Scheikl, Axel Krieger. 2025-03-04. Towards Fluorescence-Guided Autonomous Robotic Partial Nephrectomy on Novel Tissue-Mimicking Hydrogel Phantoms. https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.02265

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