Professor Amy Kyungwon Han's Lab: Healthcare Robotics Lab

Q1. Please provide a brief introduction to your laboratory and research areas.
Our laboratory, as the ‘Healthcare Robotics Lab’, is developing actuators, sensors, mechanisms, etc. that can be applied to the medical field and is trying to conduct research that can become heroic in the medical field. Medical is a really wide and expansive field, and our laboratory is conducting research focusing four of them. First, a surgical robot. The remote robotic surgery system can be divided into the side of the doctor who controls the surgical tool and the side of the patient in which the actual operation is performed. First of all, the doctor wants to increase the accuracy and stability of robotic surgery by making it feel like he is actually performing the surgery. To realize this, we are interested in manufacturing devices that can deliver various tactile feedbacks (force, stiffness, shape, texture, etc.). Second, in the patient-side system of surgical robots, instruments that can safely interact with real patients and perform important functions are being developed. For example, during spinal surgery, we are researching surgical instruments equipped with sensors that can distinguish between nerves and non-nerve tissues, and smart gripping tools that can hold and handle tissues with little force. Thirdly, we are trying to develop an implantable device for people with organ problems due to aging or congenital problems. In particular, we want to help the operation of organs in a way that can save the characteristics of organs and make it possible to check the state through sensing. As the last field, we are researching artificial muscles using smart structures and materials in soft materials. Finally, we are trying to play a role in creating more advanced technology in the medical field.

Q2. Then, what equipment or facilities are you using to carry out the research you mentioned?
Our lab, which opened in March 2022, is getting equipmente bye. First of all, there are two types of 3D printers for basic prototyping, and equipment such as a vacuum oven, spin coater and fume hood related to polymer casting. In addition, we are equipped with UV markers that can precisely pattern and cut various materials such as metals and polymers to make precise sensors or structures. The laboratory studies high-voltage, low-current actuators, and is equipped with high voltage amplifiers to drive them. In addition, it is trending to be a lab equipped with the ability to create, measure, and verify desired devices with various instruments.

Q3. Please introduce in more detail the study you are currently conducting as representative research.
I'm making devices that can be implanted into the heart. Many people get heart failure every year, and there islye way to completely cure heart failure: a heart transplant. So, while waiting for a heart transplant, patient must wear a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD). However, in order to drive the LVAD itself, a heavy and large battery of about 17 kg is required, and there is a risk of complications such as bleeding, infection, and stroke. So, we are trying to make a soft and compact heart assist device that can generate great power with little energy using electroactive polymer (EAP). In addition to this, we are trying to develop smart surgical tools equipped with sensors, and we are trying to proceed using a special technology that can distinguish nerves from other tissues.

Q4. So, can you tell us a bit about how you started these studies?
The heart transplant device is a research I am currently conducting. The professor has been interested in the heart since her post-doctoral days, and as we talked about the tasks she had been working in the US, I thought that the heart itself is difficult, but there's a lot to do. This is where I started researching. As for surgical instruments equipped with sensors, the doctor told me about a sensor that he wanted to have during surgery, and that's where I started. We are expanding with these questions about how we can perform surgery without damaging the tissue.

Q5. And what were the difficulties in conducting the research you mentioned and how did you overcome them?
Regarding the heart transplant device I am researching, I am using EAP to manufacture it, and since high voltage is applied EAP reacts very sensitively depending how it is manufactured. So, at first, there was trial and errors such as short circuit and a holes but the professor gave a lot of advice based her experience, so I was able to get a lot of help in solving the problem. Additionally, I think I was also able to find a solution by talking to graduate students and undergraduate students about the problems they were experiencing.

Q6. Is there anything else you would like to say about the lab?
Our laboratory believes that having the autonomy of research topics is a great advantage. Now that it is a research lab that is gradually developing, you can reflect a lot of what you want to do. And I think it is an advantage that I feel that I am improving little by little as I come up with an approach while talking with professors and other students about things that I could never have thought of alone.
Also, to talk about the characteristics of our laboratory, since we are researching the medical field, no matter how good or well-made our ideas are, if they become unnecessary technology in the eyes of doctors, it becomes a meaningless technology. Therefore, collaboration with doctors is a really important field. Thus, it is necessary to study a lot of factors such as how it will be physiologically and whether there are any secondary side effects, rather than simply studying control or fabrication. Even in the case of LVAD mentioned earlier, the performance is very good, but complications such as blood clots or right ventricle strain occur due to blood contact, so the laboratory is contemplating how to solve these problems.