Item Details

title

Design and Development of a 1 Degree of Freedom (1-DOF) Real Time Nozzle Height Compensation System Capable of Adjustment for Substrate Topology and Motion to be Used in in-situ Bioprinting

author

Soudan, Mulham

abstract

In situ bioprinting is an emerging technology that offers the opportunity to create or repair living tissue by depositing bioink directly at the defect site. In-situ bioprinting has previously been evaluated with robotic arms and gantry systems in open surgery, however few systems have been tested under laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery (MIS) constraints. Most MIS applications have focused on printing arthroscopically on hard stationary surfaces or tissues, like bone, due to the ease of registration and substrate tracking. However, soft tissue deformation on a macro and micro scale due to blood circulation, breathing, and random movement like peristalsis and muscular contraction complicate the printing process. Soft tissue deformation and topology will result in inconsistencies in the distance between the printing nozzle and the substrate. Bioprinting is very sensitive to nozzle height and these inconsistencies can result in bioink accumulation or thin strands of bioink that could fail to adhere to the tissue substrate and produce unacceptable inaccurate printed structures. We propose a novel MIS bioprinting platform capable of real time scanning of the soft tissue surfaces and dynamic adaptation of the nozzle height to stay within an acceptable range. We modified a da Vinci surgical tool with optical distance sensing, a lightweight high-speed micro linear piezo actuator, and a bioink extruder. The bioprinting platform was evaluated on smooth and topologically diverse substrates under stationary, breathing, and heartbeat simulated physiological motion profiles. The proposed design demonstrated real time adaptive nozzle height compensation in all scenarios on smooth and organic topological substrates, while maintaining integrity of the printed structure. This capability addresses the challenge of soft tissue deformation and dynamic movement in MIS bioprinting, ensuring consistent bioink deposition.

subject

In-Situ Bioprinting

Motion Tracking

Robotic Minimally Invasive Surgery

Topology Scanning

contributor

Brown, Philip J (advisor)

Stitzel, Joel (committee member)

Kucukdeger, Ezgi (committee member)

Kengla, Carlos (committee member)

McGinnis, Ryan (committee member)

date

2025-06-24T08:36:43Z (accessioned)

2025 (issued)

degree

Biomedical Engineering (discipline)

embargo

2027-06-23 (terms)

2027-06-23 (liftdate)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/111064 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Dissertation