The Robotics Institute
Search the site
RI | Research | Projects | MBARS

Text only version of this site

[Project image] Mini Bone-Attached Robotic System (MBARS)
This project is no longer active.

Head: Howie Choset
Contact: Howie Choset (choset@cs.cmu.edu)

Mailing address:
Carnegie Mellon University
Robotics Institute
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213


Associated lab/group: Biorobotics

For more information, see this project's homepage.

Jump to: Project Description | Personnel

Project Description

This research seeks to develop a novel computer assisted and robotic tool that will enable less and minimally invasive surgical techniques for orthopaedic surgery while at the same time provide more precise bone shaping. The clinical focus will be on Joint Arthroplasty i.e., total knee and hip replacement procedures. The Miniature Bone Attached Robotic System (MBARS) is a miniature parallel robotic device that is attached to the operated bone and actively shapes it according to a patient specific pre-operative plan to fit an implant. As MBARS is rigidly attached to the operated bone, the two become a one rigid body eliminating the need to compute relative motions from individually tracked entities, which results in greater precision. After a one time registration of the robot.s location to the patient specific computer bone model, the robot actively mills the bone (just like a CNC machine) resulting in a precise bone surface to which the implant may be attached. Additionally, with the aid of a computer, more intricate designs that integrate more effectively with the anatomy can be implanted.

Past members

Name Title Email Address
Nathan Abraham Masters Student, RI
Howie's personal homepage Howie Choset Associate Professor choset@cs.cmu.edu
Anthony M Di Gioia, III, MD Adj Prof, CEE/Assoc.Res Profess,Robotics, RI/CEE tony@pfcusa.org
Branislav's personal homepage Branislav Jaramaz Associate Research Professor branko@icaos.org
Brad Lisien Masters Student, MechE
Alon Wolf Visiting Research Scientist


The Robotics Institute is part of the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.
For updates and comments, please see these instructions.
This page maintained by robotwebmaster@ri.cmu.edu