Robotic Application in Neurosurgery Using Intelligent Visual and Haptic Interaction

Abstract

Today, the complexity and high technical requirements of neurosurgical operations are so demanding that modern robotic achievements and advances of accompanied technologies appear as the immanent means, which can significantly improve neurosurgical practice. A novel robotic system (RONNARObotic NeuroNAvigation) for application in neurosurgery is presented. The RONNA consists of two conventional articulated robot arms with a total of 13 degrees of freedom. A rigid and accurate robot is used for precise targeting of planned operating points and a compliant robot is used as operative assistant. A distinctive marker was developed for the purpose of precise localization and registration of the patient's head. A novel visual calibration method is presented. The developed dual arm neurosurgical system enables flexible and reliable application with embedded behaviour based control providing intuitive interaction with surgical team and new possibilities compared to the existing surgical robot solutions.

A Novel Robotic Neuronavigation System: RONNA G3

“…We have extensively upgraded the previously developed RONNA system [23]. That system was tested through rigorous preclinical trials which resulted in numerous improvements and in the development of the new RONNA G3 system.…”

“…RONNAstereo consists of two infrared cameras (acA2000-50gmNIR, Basler, Ahrensburg, Germany) with macro lenses aligned at a 55° angle in the same plane. The RONNAstereo was considerably improved with respect to its initial version presented in [23]. By determining the position of a corresponding point in both images, a virtual tool centre point (TCP) is defined.…”

Path Planning and Co-Simulation Control of 8 DOF Anthropomorphic Robotic Arm

“…Anthropomorphic arm developed so far has 6 degrees of freedom [5][6][7][8][9] and 7 degrees of freedom [9][10][11][12]. Even though the work envelopes of those arms are similar to human work envelope, some of the human movements cannot be replicated by these arms [13].…”

Simulation for Robotic Stereotactic Neurosurgery

“…It is used at the very beginning of the operation, immediately after the patient and robot positioning is performed. The research is conducted in the scope of the project RONNA (Robotic Neuronavigation) [8].…”