发表机构
University of California San Diego; Johns Hopkins University; Carnegie Mellon University; UC San Diego Health（加利福尼亚大学圣迭戈分校; 约翰斯·霍普金斯大学; 卡内基梅隆大学; 加州大学圣迭戈分校健康中心）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
本研究提出一种基于缝合线辅助的自主缝针拾取框架，通过线操作实现间接拾取，可应对缝针被遮挡或不可接近等场景，提升了自主缝合的鲁棒性。
AI 中文摘要
缝针拾取是自主缝合的必要环节，因为缝针可能意外掉落或被有意释放以调整抓取构型。当前自主缝针拾取方法通常引导机器人直线朝向缝针移动并抓取，仅适用于缝针可见且可直接接近的场景；此外，抓取置于组织上的缝针可能导致机器人夹伤附近组织，或因缝针表面光滑使其跳动，存在潜在安全问题。本研究提出一种自主框架，使用缝合线作为辅助工具实现间接缝针拾取，避免不必要的工具-组织接触，且在缝针被遮挡或不可接近时仍可完成拾取。该框架涵盖完整工作流程，包括线与组织重建、安全抓取点选择、稳定线提升及双手线跟随直至固定抓取缝针；机器人策略考虑视觉不确定性，以最大化真实环境中的鲁棒性。在da Vinci Research Kit上针对多种真实世界条件评估该框架，结果表明，即使面对复杂线构型或不可接近的缝针，仍具备鲁棒性能，缩小了自主机器人策略在非结构化缝合环境中应用的差距。
英文摘要
Suture-needle pickup is necessary for autonomous suturing, as a needle can be unexpectedly dropped or strategically released to adjust the grasping configuration. Current methods for autonomous needle pickup typically guide a robot to move straight toward the needle and grasp it, limited to conditions where the needle is observable and directly approachable. In addition, grasping the needle lying on tissue can lead to the robot pinching nearby tissue or the needle jumping around due to its slippery surface, posing potential safety issues. This work proposes an autonomous framework that uses a suture thread as an assistive tool for indirect needle pickup, avoiding unnecessary tool-tissue contact and enabling pickup even when the needle is occluded or inaccessible. The framework spans the entire workflow, including thread and tissue reconstruction, safe grasp-point selection, stable thread lifting, and bimanual thread-following until securing needle grasping. The robot policies account for visual uncertainty to maximize robustness in real-world environments. We evaluate the proposed framework on a da Vinci Research Kit under various real-world conditions. The results demonstrate robust performance even with a challenging thread configuration or a non-approachable needle, closing the gap in applying autonomous robot policies to unstructured suturing environments.
CommentsAccepted to IROS 2026
