Development of a miniature novel biopsy instrument for ductoscopy

Background: Ductoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure, using a sub millimeter fiber optical camera, to explore the mammary ductal epithelium for Pathological Nipple Discharge (serous fluid discharged from the milk duct) and breast cancer, detecting lesions up to eight years before other modalities. Although ductoscopy can revolutionize breast...

Design of a power-assistance system for body-powered hand-prostheses

Body-powered hand prostheses are characterized by low weight and low cost compared to externally powered prostheses. They also provide force and position feedback, allowing for accurate and fast position and force control of the prosthesis. Body-powered hand prostheses are often rejected on the basis of low efficiency. The high forces needed to...

Hornet Fixation Device

Laparoscopic suturing can be very time consuming and frustrating for inexperienced surgeons. It is one of the hardest actions to perform in a laparoscopic fashion, but it remains the golden standard. There are alternative fixation methods such as automatic needle passers, knot-tying devices, staplers, tackers and adhesives but they all have...

Balance and control of a rear-wheel steered speed-record recumbent bicycle

The goal of the Human Power Team from the TU Delft and the Free University of Amsterdam is to break the world speed record in unpaced cycling (Sam Whittingham, 133.28 km/h). The design of such a faired recumbent bicycle is a challenge. The Delft design, called VeloX (Human Power Team (2013)), is a fully-faired monocoque front-driven recumbent...

Design and preliminary testing of a novel sit-snowboard, enabling chairlift usage

Sit-snowboards allow a person with the inability to actively use his/her legs to snowboard while sitting. However, existing prototypes do not allow using a chairlift. The goal of this study was to modify a prototype sit-snowboard, MINI, to add chairlift accessibility. MINI has a seat construction and two handlebars which allow the user to steer...

Design of the flexible HORSE morcellator for the surgical treatment of Cushing's disease in horses

Thesis on the design of a flexible morcellator for the surgical treatment of Cushing's disease in horses. Currently there is no surgical treatment possible in horses due to lack of a surgical approach and tools. In this study a new innovative flexible tool is developped in combination with a surgical approach that can be used for the surgical...

Design of a Compliant Escapement Mechanism

This thesis describes the design process for an iso-frequent oscillator. Instead of designing the perfect linear spring for a harmonic oscillator, non-linearities in the force deflection behavior of the spring are allowed. These inperfections are then compensated by propper transmission design.

Design of a guidance device for minimally invasive hip prosthesis refixation

All around the world countries’ populations are aging and with this increase of expected lifetimes there is additional need for medical interventions such as hip replacements. With many people outliving the lifetime of these implanted parts, revisions are sometimes necessary. In some hip prostheses, layers of fibrous tissue can grow and decrease...

Surgical lighting in motion: Design and validation of an improved suspension mechanism for the surgical luminaire

Usability issues have been observed in luminaire repositioning, during surgical operations. These difficulties were confirmed to be related to the kinematics of the translational subsystem of the suspension mechanism, specifically the possibility of singularity. Due to which the required force for luminaire repositioning depends on the spatial...

Design of a Steerable Laparoscopic Instrument for Cleaning and Sterilization

In the last thirty years, many new surgical methods and techniques such as laparoscopic surgery and natural orifice surgery have been introduced into hospitals worldwide. As these technologies have progressed, surgical instruments have become increasingly more complex and also much more difficult to clean and sterilize. In this paper, one such...