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Control of a hybrid robotic system for computer-assisted interventions in dynamic environments

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International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Minimally invasive surgery is becoming the standard treatment of care for a variety of procedures. Surgeons need to display a high level of proficiency to overcome the challenges imposed by the minimal access. Especially when operating on a dynamic organ, it becomes very difficult to align instruments reliably and precisely. In this paper, a hybrid rigid/continuum robotic system and a dedicated robotic control approach are proposed to assist the surgeon performing complex surgical gestures in a dynamic environment.

Methods

The proposed robotic system consists of a rigid robot arm on top of which a continuum robot is mounted in series. The continuum robot is locally actuated with McKibben muscles. A control scheme based on quadratic programming framework is adopted. It is shown that the framework allows enforcing a set of constraints on the pose of the tip, as well as of the instrument shaft, which is commanded to slide in and out through the entry point.

Results

Through simulation and experiments, it is shown how the robot tool tip is able to follow sinusoidal trajectories of 0.37 and 2 Hz, while maintaining the instrument shaft pivoting along the entry point. The positioning and tracking accuracy of such system are shown to lie below 4.7 mm in position and \(5.4^{\circ }\) in angle.

Conclusion

The results suggest a good potential for applying the proposed technology to assist the surgeon during complex robot-assisted interventions. It is also illustrated that even when using flexible hence relatively safe end-effectors, it is possible to reach acceptable tracking behaviour at relatively high frequencies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme FP7-ICT under Grant Agreement No. 601021, EU project CASCADE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiac surgery, UZ Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Herbert De Praetere

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 300C, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

    Gabrijel Smoljkic, Gianni Borghesan, Alain Devreker, Emmanuel Vander Poorten, Benoit Rosa, Joris De Schutter, Dominiek Reynaerts & Jos Vander Sloten

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  1. Gabrijel Smoljkic
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  2. Gianni Borghesan
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  3. Alain Devreker
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  4. Emmanuel Vander Poorten
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  5. Benoit Rosa
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  6. Herbert De Praetere
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  7. Joris De Schutter
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  8. Dominiek Reynaerts
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  9. Jos Vander Sloten
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gabrijel Smoljkic.

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Article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Smoljkic, G., Borghesan, G., Devreker, A. et al. Control of a hybrid robotic system for computer-assisted interventions in dynamic environments. Int J CARS 11, 1371–1383 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-015-1333-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-015-1333-8

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