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Leveraging the Fulcrum Point in Robotic Minimally Invasive Surgery

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

In robotic Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) the incision point acts as a fulcrum around which the surgical instrument pivots. The fulcrum point has been the topic of much research. Mechanisms have been invented to enforce instrument motion about such a fulcrum. Other systems establish a fulcrum through coordinated control of their joints. For laparoscopists, the fulcrum point is an obstacle to overcome through a lot of training. For robots, it is a hurdle requiring careful consideration. In this paper, new estimation methods are proposed to exploit the properties of a fulcrum and turn its presence into an advantage. The paper starts by presenting a novel fulcrum estimation method that is robust against measurement noise and quantization effects. A general fulcrum refinement method is proposed next. This method can be used as add-on to ameliorate alternative estimation approaches. It is shown how the fulcrum can also be leveraged to get accurate, high-bandwidth estimates of the instrument tip. The quality with which the instrument tip is estimated has a large impact on the performance of advanced guidance schemes, such as haptic virtual walls. User tests are included, demonstrating substantially improved guidance thanks to the algorithms presented in this work.
Journal: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
ISSN: 2377-3766
Issue: 3
Volume: 3
Pages: 2071 - 2078
Publication year:2018
Accessibility:Open