Carina™ Robotic Assisted Surgery platform development: Ronovo Surgical^©

The project story:

Our involvement in the programme started with a design review to identify risks and areas for attention. We took the concept to a system architecture suitable for subsequent detailed design, with identification of all key components, usability analysis and industrial design. The work on the overall system included the patient-side cart, surgeon console, set-up and active robotic arms, instrument drive and endoscope drive, as well as wristed instruments. Working alongside the Ronovo Surgical© team, we then detailed the following subsystems and built functional prototypes: instrument arm, instrument drive, monopolar curved scissors with sterile adapter. Most recently we designed a custom-made surgeon input device for the surgeon console, improving range of motion and COGS over the existing solution.

Key challenges included: enabling the maximum range of procedures by optimising set-up and active arm geometries; keeping the arms compact enough to allow easy OR staff interaction; and collaboration across time zones.

We took the following approach throughout the programme:

• Rigorous but pragmatic system architecture development
• Informing the architecture with user insights, usability and workflow studies
• Targeting COGS across the system, using our knowledge of design for manufacture and local supply chains
• Rapid pace, compressing duration without unduly increasing risk