Artūras Straižys
My research project focuses on autonomous surgical cutting of soft tissues with a scalpel. The automation of this task promises improved precision, consistency and patient’s post-surgical experience. However, the robotic cutting of soft tissues is an extremely challenging problem, mainly due to the overwhelming complexity of soft tissue deformation and separation processes. Intriguingly, human surgeons demonstrate a remarkable robustness at cutting tasks without access to a detailed model of biological tissues. In this project we aim to capture the implicit behaviours underlying surgical cutting and to uncover the control structure that shapes this complex bimanual motor behaviour in the task of skin lesion excision.
I am a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh under supervision of Prof. Subramanian Ramamoorthy. Before starting my PhD studies, I worked for four years on designing avionics for general aviation aircraft and a year on electronics design of laser spectroscopy equipment. I am interested in medical robotics, robot control and skill transfer learning. In my research I focus on the challenges of autonomous cutting of soft tissues.
