Drill instructor

Birmingham engineers are developing a technique designed to make microsurgery more accurate by taking real-time force and torque measurements during operations.

The team at Aston University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science hopes a robot-controlled drill incorporating the new sensor-based technology will be used for the first time in a delicate ear operation early next year.

The technique being developed for the cochleostomy procedure uses a unique sensory-guided robot that can accurately penetrate through tissue and, through an inference process, know when to stop drilling by measuring the various forces present at the front of the drill.

Technical leader of the project, Prof Peter Brett, said the procedure uses sensory data gathered during surgery to measure changes in force and torque on the drill as tissue is removed. Force and torque operate in opposite ways as the surgical drill nears the breakthrough point; torque increases markedly, while force decreases as the bone thins out in front of the drill bit.