The Wide-Open Three-Legged Parallel Robot for Long-Bone Fracture Reduction

Abstract

Robotic reduction of long bones is associated with the need for considerable force and high precision. To balance the accuracy, payload, and workspace, we have designed a new six degrees-of-freedom three-legged wide-open robotic system for long-bone fracture reduction. Thanks to the low number of legs and their nonsymmetrical configuration, the mechanism enjoys a unique architecture with a frontally open half-plane. This facilitates positioning the leg inside the mechanism and provides a large workspace for surgical maneuvers, as shown and compared to the well-known Gough–Stewart platform. The experimental tests on a phantom reveal that the mechanism is well capable of applying the desired reduction steps against the large muscular payloads with high accuracy.

Hill‐based musculoskeletal model for a fracture reduction robot

“…Fracture reduction robot was introduced to improve the accuracy of long bone fracture reduction surgery. Although the fracture reduction robot proposed by different research teams has different structures, [4][5][6][7]10 the current mainstream is a six-degree-of-freedom parallel structure based on the Stewart platform. In an effort to reduce the difficulty of design, some teams adopted a master-slave control method for the robot.…”

“…The navigation robot based on force feedback control designed by Kim 9 can assist doctors in fracture reduction operations. Abedinnasab 10 designed a three‐leg six‐degree‐of‐freedom fracture reduction robot. Thanks to the fewer legs and asymmetrical configuration, the robot has a larger working space.…”

Medical Robotics in Bone Fracture Reduction Surgery: A Review

“…In 2015, Dagnino G. et al [62,63] proposed a miniaturized parallel robot for small fractures of the neck of femur, which connects the fracture segment through only one metal bone needle with a limit load of 360 N and 12 N·m, as shown in Figure 3d. In 2017, Abedinnasab M. H. et al [64] proposed a novel parallel wide-open robot, which consists of three legs. Each leg is actuated by a rotary and a linear actuator, as shown in Figure 3e.…”

“…Although the experimental results of serial-parallel hybrid robots listed in Table 1 are good, its performance in long bone fractures is currently not satisfactory. Such robots in the typical literature [64,65,66,67] are still assisted by additional traction beds due to the insufficient traction they can provide. Serial-parallel hybrid robots can combine some of the advantages of series and parallel.…”

Constraint of musculoskeletal tissue and path planning of robot‐assisted fracture reduction with collision avoidance

“…With the development of robot technology and computer‐assisted navigation technology, robot‐assisted surgeons can complete high‐precision surgical operations 1–12 …”