MINARO HD: control and evaluation of a handheld, highly dynamic surgical robot

Purpose

Current surgical robotic systems are either large serial arms, resulting in higher risks due to their high inertia and no inherent limitations of the working space, or they are bone-mounted, adding substantial additional task steps to the surgical workflow. The robot presented in this paper has a handy and lightweight design and can be easily held by the surgeon. No rigid fixation to the bone or a cart is necessary. A high-speed tracking camera together with a fast control system ensures the accurate positioning of a burring tool.

Methods

The capabilities of the robotic system to dynamically compensate for unintended motion, either of the robot itself or the patient, was evaluated. Therefore, the step response was analyzed as well as the capability to follow a moving target.

Results

The step response show that the robot can compensate for undesired motions up to 12 Hz in any direction. While following a moving target, a maximum positioning error of 0.5 mm can be obtained with a target motion of up to 18 mm/s.

Conclusion

The requirements regarding dynamic motion compensation, accuracy, and machining speed of unicompartmental knee arthroplasties, for which the robot was optimized, are achieved with the presented robotic system. In particular, the step response results show that the robot is able to compensate for human tremor.

Medical Robots: Current Systems and Research Directions

First used medically in 1985, robots now make an impact in laparoscopy, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, emergency response, and various other medical disciplines. This paper provides a review of medical robot history and surveys the capabilities of current medical robot systems, primarily focusing on commercially available systems while covering a few prominent research projects. By examining robotic systems across time and disciplines, trends are discernible that imply future capabilities of medical robots, for example, increased usage of intraoperative images, improved robot arm design, and haptic feedback to guide the surgeon.

A Compact Modular Teleoperated Robotic System for Laparoscopic Surgery

Compared with traditional open surgery, minimally invasive surgical procedures reduce patient trauma and recovery time, but the dexterity of the surgeon in laparoscopic surgery is reduced owing to the small incisions, long instruments and limited indirect visibility of the operative site inside the patient. Robotic surgical systems, teleoperated by surgeons from a master control console with joystick-type manipulation interfaces, have been commercially developed yet their adoption into standard practice may be limited owing to their size, complexity, cost and time-consuming setup, maintenance and sterilization procedures. The goal of our research is to improve the effectiveness of robot-assisted surgery by developing much smaller, simpler, modular, teleoperated robotic manipulator systems for minimally invasive surgery.