Needle-Tissue Interaction Force State Estimation for Robotic Surgical Suturing

Robotically Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (RAMIS) offers many advantages over manual surgical techniques. Most of the limitations of RAMIS stem from its non-intuitive user interface and costs. One way to mitigate some of the limitations is to automate surgical subtasks (e.g. suturing) such that they are performed faster while allowing the surgeon to plan the next step of the procedure. One component of successful suture automation is minimizing the internal tissue deformation forces generated by driving a needle through tissue. Minimizing the internal tissue forces requires segmenting the tissue deformation forces from other components of the needle tissue interaction (e.g. friction force). This paper proposes an Unscented Kalman Filter which can successfully model the force components, in particular the internal deformation force, generated by a needle as it is driven through a sample of tissue.

Real-time simulation for intra-operative navigation in robotic surgery. Using a mass spring system for a basic study of organ deformation

Medical technology has advanced with the introduction of robot technology, making previous medical treatments that were very difficult far more possible. However, operation of a surgical robot demands substantial training and continual practice on the part of the surgeon because it requires difficult techniques that are different from those of traditional surgical procedures. We focused on a simulation technology based on the physical characteristics of organs. In this research, we proposed the development of surgical simulation, based on a physical model, for intra-operative navigation by a surgeon. In this paper, we describe the design of our system, in particular our organ deformation calculator. The proposed simulation system consists of an organ deformation calculator and virtual slave manipulators. We obtained adequate experimental results of a target node at a nearby point of interaction, because this point ensures better accuracy for our simulation model. The next research step would be to focus on a surgical environment in which internal organ models would be integrated into a slave simulation system.