Description du sujet de thèse

Tracheal intubation is a daily practice in anesthesia, intensive care and emergency medicine, as well as in some medico-surgical specialties such as ear, nose and throat surgery (ENT). Data from the literature suggest that tracheal intubation is used for airway management in nearly one third of general anesthesia in the UK, estimated at 1.1 million intubation procedures per year. Although frequent, these acts are risky and the intubation procedure entirely depends on the operator skills. This dependency on specialized personnel impacts the availability of these resources and increases the cost of medical interventions. Moreover, this procedure still includes significant morbi-mortality, especially in situations known as “difficult intubations” that could lead to the potentially catastrophic “cannot intubate cannot ventilate” scenario. Difficult intubations are correlated to the morphology and the patient's size (adults, children) and on additional factors such as the presence of tumors in the upper airways for instance (leading to local volume increase, hypervascularity).

Intubation instruments are typically tools made out of rigid materials, and deployed through rigid body motion by pushing their bases. However, the tool stiffness and the mode of deployment can lead to significant discomfort and damages to the surrounding tissues. This can make these tools unsuitable and dangerous in cases such as fixed cervical spine, and can lead to permanent cervical damages. In the case of a tumor, bleeding can occur, which might trigger a vicious circle during the surgical procedure. These complications can severely compromise patient oxygenation, and potentially lead to severe disabilities, and death.

Since 2017, active research has been conducted on a revolutionary robotic structure called “vine” growing robot. It is a soft, inflatable robot, which deploys by growth at the tip instead of rigid body motion. Such deployment is achieved by a mechanism called material eversion, where new material travels inside the robot body upon the action of an internal pressure, reaches the tip, and deploys inside out, creating the robot body. Such a robot thus provides inherent safety by its materials and locomotion modality, since it doesn't exert any shear or friction forces on the tissues. In addition, vine robots can pass through orifices smaller than their outer diameters, and don't get stuck in sticky environments. This inherently soft robot has hence been proposed for medical applications such as deployment in the vasculature, the mammary ducts or the large intestine. While patient intubation has also been explored, several key difficulties remain. Indeed, vine robots face significant challenges for both opening a channel through their core, required for patient ventilation and the passage of surgical instruments, and for the modulation of their stiffness, which can be a key feature to open a working channel. Finally, difficult intubations have not been investigated in previous work. We address these limitations in this project, with an innovative concept.

The proposition of this project is a new vine robot design, which is pneumatically actuated, remains entirely soft during deployment, and stiffens after deployment while providing a large working channel. In this project, the PhD student will particularly focus on the proposition and development of stiffness modulation methods inside vine growing robots, as well as on the creation of a large working channel for patient ventilation and the passage of tools.

Contexte de travail

This PhD thesis will take place in Montpellier, a sunny and vibrant city located in the south of France, near the Mediterranean sea. The work will take place at the Laboratoire d'Informatique, de Robotique et de Microélectronique de Montpellier (LIRMM). The LIRMM is a mixte research unit between the CNRS and the University of Montpellier, and includes more than 400 employees, among which 192 permanent staff. It is divided in 3 research units: Computer Science, Robotics, Micro-Electronics, with additional centralized services. The PhD student will integrate the DEXTER team in the Robotics Department, and will be advised by Cedric Girerd and Nabil Zemiti.

This PhD thesis will be conducted in collaboration with the FEMTO-ST Institute located in Besançon, France. Thus, the PhD student will also be co-advised by Nicolas Andreff from the FEMTO-ST Institute, and trips between Montpellier and Besançon will be planned during the thesis.

The background of the PhD student should be ideally in mechatronics, robotics, mechanical design, with a Master 2 or Engineer level (Bac+5). The student should have strong analytical, experimental and general problem-solving skills, with attention to details. He/She should also be able to collaborate closely with colleagues in multicultural environments, and particularly with medical staff. He/She should be fluent in English with excellent writing and communication skills. The starting date of the PhD student should be ideally around the 1st of February 2026.

The PhD student will be founded by the ANR PRCE RESPIRE project.

Le poste se situe dans un secteur relevant de la protection du potentiel scientifique et technique (PPST), et nécessite donc, conformément à la réglementation, que votre arrivée soit autorisée par l'autorité compétente du MESR.

Contraintes et risques

N/A