26 Aug 2020
Viscoelastic Characteristics of Porcine Liver

Viscoelastic Characteristics of Porcine Liver

Robot Categories 👉🏻, Steerable Needles
In this post, viscoelastic characteristics of the porcine liver are measured using rheological experiments. These data were needed for needle insertion experiments. The contributors of this project are Mahdieh Babaiasl, and Fan Yang, under the supervision of Dr. John Swensen. Sample Preparation for Rheological Tests The porcine liver was obtained from the WSU's meat science lab right after slaughter to avoid the changing of tissue properties. No authorization or approval was required since the liver was qualified to be food. The liver is then put in the 0.9% Sodium Chloride solution (9g NaCl was dissolved in 700 ml water in…
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22 Aug 2020
Heat Treatment of Nitinol for Different Stylet Shapes

Heat Treatment of Nitinol for Different Stylet Shapes

Robot Categories 👉🏻, Steerable Needles
In this post you will learn about an approach to fabricate different stylet shapes for our proposed stylet and tube steerable needles using heat treatment of the Nitinol (a Shape Memory Alloy SMA). Our lab developed a new class of steerable needles called Stylet and Tube Steerable Needles in which the direction of the tissue fracture is controlled by the inner Stylet followed by the outer tube to help steer the needle. Stylet and Tube Steerable Needles The shape of the stylet and the step length determine the radius of curvature of the steerable needle. For this reason, we have…
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21 Aug 2020
Resultant Radius of Curvature of Stylet and Tube Steerable Needles

Resultant Radius of Curvature of Stylet and Tube Steerable Needles

Robot Categories 👉🏻, Steerable Needles
Our paper "Resultant Radius of Curvature of Stylet-and-Tube Steerable Needles Based on the Mechanical Properties of the Soft Tissue, and the Needle" is accepted to be published at the proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), which is scheduled to be held on Sun, Oct 25, 2020 – Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at Las Vegas, NV (most likely it will be virtual because of the Pandemic). The contributors to this project are Fan Yang, and Mahdieh Babaiasl, who conducted the research under the supervision of Dr. John Swensen. Stylet-and-Tube Steerable Needles. The combined radius of curvature…
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08 Aug 2020
How to Import the Math Equations from LaTex to Your Website (HTML)

How to Import the Math Equations from LaTex to Your Website (HTML)

Hacks
As an Engineer and a researcher, we use math equations all the time. In old days, we used to use MathType with Word to write our scientific articles. However, MathType is not free and it is tedious to use with Word. So ditch them both and use LaTeX instead! LaTex makes life easier, especially while typing mathematical equations. Articles written with LaTex are also aesthetically appealing. After we launched this Website (Mecharithm), we needed to include some of the projects with math equations that were written in LaTex. Because Madi was not very experienced with HTML, she was not sure…
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07 Aug 2020
Madi Successfully Defended Her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering 🥳

Madi Successfully Defended Her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering 🥳

Mecharithm News
On July 22nd, Madi has successfully defended her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. It all started out with a virtual defense. Her presentation took about an hour and then the committee questioned her for another hour! They finally announced that she is now Dr. Babaiasl. Hurrah! She got to finish her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering successfully! The Commencement this year is all virtual (Bummer)! However, Madi had the chance to wear the Doctoral Gown and Tam! It took her 20+ years to wear these beauties! Cheers! 🥂🍻🍾 BUT she is not done yet! 😆 Once a Coug, Always a Coug! Madi's…
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26 Jun 2020
Fracture-directed Waterjet Needle Steering: Design, Modeling, and Path Planning

Fracture-directed Waterjet Needle Steering: Design, Modeling, and Path Planning

Robot Categories 👉🏻, Steerable Needles
Our paper on fracture-directed waterjet needle steering is accepted to be presented at BioRob 2020 and also to be published in IEEE. The contributors of this paper are Mahdieh Babaiasl, Stefano Bocelli, and Fan Yang, under the supervision of Dr. John Swensen. The abstract of this paper is: Steerable needle technology has the promise of improving outcomes by enhancing the accuracy of different therapies and biopsies, as they can be steered to a target location around obstacles. Achieving a small radius of curvature and being able to control both radius of curvature and tip travel is of paramount importance in…
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26 Jun 2020
Duty Cycling of Waterjet Can Improve Steerability and Radius-of-Curvature (ROC) for Waterjet Steerable Needles

Duty Cycling of Waterjet Can Improve Steerability and Radius-of-Curvature (ROC) for Waterjet Steerable Needles

Robot Categories 👉🏻, Steerable Needles
Our paper on curvature control of waterjet steerable needles is accepted to be presented at ISMR 2020 and also to be published in IEEE. The contributors of this paper are Mahdieh Babaiasl, and Fan Yang under the supervision of Dr. John Swensen. The abstract of this paper is: Steerable needles are a type of medical devices that can steer around obstacles to reach a target location and thus can improve the accuracy of medical procedures. Radius-of-Curvature (ROC) is of paramount importance while designing steerable needles and achieving smaller radius and being able to control it is very important in evaluating…
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23 Jun 2020
Towards Waterjet Steerable Needles

Towards Waterjet Steerable Needles

Robot Categories 👉🏻, Steerable Needles
This paper measured the waterjet needle's insertion forces and compared them with a traditional needle with no waterjet running through. It is shown that incorporating a waterjet reduces the insertion force and thus buckling of the needle. The contributors for this project are Mahdieh Babaiasl, and Fan Yang under the supervision of Dr. John P. Swensen. Abstract of the Paper Towards Waterjet Steerable Needles Water-jet technology has been used extensively for decades industrially for many applications including mining, plastic, metal, stone, wood, and produce cutting. The use of water-jet in medical applications has been developed more recently and it is…
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17 Jun 2020
Fracture-Directed Steerable Needles

Fracture-Directed Steerable Needles

Robot Categories 👉🏻, Steerable Needles
Our paper entitled "Fracture-Directed Steerable Needles" is published in the Journal of Medical Robotics Research. The authors of this manuscript are Fan Yang, Mahdieh Babaiasl, and John Swensen. Abstract of the "Fracture-Directed Steerable Needles" Steerable needles hold the promise of improving the accuracy of both therapies and biopsies as they are able to steer to a target location around obstructions, correct for disturbances, and account for the movement of internal organs. However, their ability to make late-insertion corrections has always been limited by the lower bound on the attainable radius of curvature. This project involves a new class of steerable…
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14 Jun 2020
How to Perform an Effective Peer Review

How to Perform an Effective Peer Review

Hacks
Are you invited to do a peer review for a journal or conference? Are you wondering how to write the review or where to start it? If you have any of these questions you are at the right place. Doing a peer review is a great responsibility. You are responsible to give your unbiased opinion on an article to keep scientific community from false findings and inaccurate research while at the same time promoting legitimate good research that are fruits of years of countless hours at lab, discouragements, tears, and perseverance. How Does Peer Review Work The author submits the…
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