A method for controlling a surgical device is provided. The method includes manipulating the surgical device to perform a procedure on a patient; determining whether a relationship between an anatomy of the patient and a position, an orientation, a velocity, and/or an acceleration of a surgical tool of the surgical device corresponds to a desired relationship between the anatomy and the position, the orientation, the velocity, and/or the acceleration of the surgical tool; and imposing a constraint on the surgical device if the relationship does not correspond to the desired relationship and/or a detection device is unable to detect a position of the anatomy and/or the position of the surgical tool.

Method and apparatus for controlling a haptic device

We present a telerobotics research platform that provides complete access to all levels of control via open- source electronics and software. The electronics employs an FPGA to enable a centralized computation and distributed I/O architecture in which all control computations are implemented in a familiar development environment (Linux PC) and low- latency I/O is performed over an IEEE-1394a (FireWire) bus at speeds up to 400 Mbits/sec. The mechanical components are obtained from retired first-generation da Vinci R Surgical Systems. This system is currently installed at 11 research institutions, with additional installations underway, thereby creating a research community around a common open-source hardware and software platform.

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An open-source research kit for the da Vinci® Surgical System

Foundations of Robotics presents the fundamental concepts and methodologies for the analysis, design, and control of robot manipulators It explains the physical meaning of the concepts and equations used, and it provides, in an intuitively clear way, the necessary background in kinetics, linear algebra, and control theory Illustrative examples appear throughoutThe author begins by discussing typical robot manipulator mechanisms and their controllers He then devotes three chapters to the analysis of robot manipulator mechanisms He covers the kinematics of robot manipulators, describing the motion of manipulator links and objects related to manipulation A chapter on dynamics includes the derivation of the dynamic equations of motion, their use for control and simulation and the identification of inertial parameters The final chapter develops the concept of manipulabilityThe second half focuses on the control of robot manipulators Various position-control algorithms that guide the manipulator's end effector along a desired trajectory are described Two typical methods used to control the contact force between the end effector and its environments are detailed For manipulators with redundant degrees of freedom, a technique to develop control algorithms for active utilization of the redundancy is described Appendixes give compact reviews of the function atan2, pseudo inverses, singular-value decomposition, and Lyapunov stability theoryTsuneo Yoshikawa teaches in the Division of Applied Systems Science in Kyoto University's Faculty of Engineering

Foundations of robotics : analysis and control

Research on surgical robotics demands systems for evaluating scientific approaches. Such systems can be divided into dedicated and versatile systems. Dedicated systems are designed for a single surgical task or technique, whereas versatile systems are designed to be expandable and useful in multiple surgical applications. Versatile systems are often based on industrial robots, though, and because of this, are hardly suitable for close contact with humans. To achieve a high degree of versatility the Miro robotic surgery platform (MRSP) consists of versatile components, dedicated front–ends towards surgery and configurable interfaces for the surgeon. This paper presents MiroSurge, a configuration of the MRSP that allows for bimanual endoscopic telesurgery with force feedback. While the components of the MiroSurge system are shown to fulfil the rigid design requirements for robotic telesurgery with force feedback, the system remains versatile, which is supposed to be a key issue for the further development and optimisation.

https://elib.dlr.de/76868/1/IJCARS_2009_JournalPaper_Hagn_CameraReady.pdf

DLR MiroSurge: a versatile system for research in endoscopic telesurgery.

Active constraints, also known as virtual fixtures, are high-level control algorithms which can be used to assist a human in man-machine collaborative manipulation tasks. The active constraint controller monitors the robotic manipulator with respect to the environment and task, and anisotropically regulates the motion to provide assistance. The type of assistance offered by active constraints can vary, but they are typically used to either guide the user along a task-specific pathway or limit the user to within a “safe” region. There are several diverse methods described within the literature for applying active constraints, and these are surveyed within this paper. The active constraint research is described and compared using a simple generalized framework, which consists of three primary processes: 1) constraint definition, 2) constraint evaluation, and 3) constraint enforcement. All relevant research approaches for each of these processes, found using search terms associated to “virtual fixture,” “active constraint” and “motion constraint,” are presented.

Active Constraints/Virtual Fixtures: A Survey

Purpose – Surgical robotics can be divided into two groups: specialized and versatile systems. Versatile systems can be used in different surgical applications, control architectures and operating room set‐ups, but often still based on the adaptation of industrial robots. Space consumption, safety and adequacy of industrial robots in the unstructured and crowded environment of an operating room and in close human robot interaction are at least questionable. The purpose of this paper is to describe the DLR MIRO, a new versatile lightweight robot for surgical applications.Design/methodology/approach – The design approach of the DLR MIRO robot focuses on compact, slim and lightweight design to assist the surgeon directly at the operating table without interference. Significantly reduced accelerated masses (total weight 10 kg) enhance the safety of the system during close interaction with patient and user. Additionally, MIRO integrates torque‐sensing capabilities to enable close interaction with human beings ...

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The DLR MIRO: a versatile lightweight robot for surgical applications

This paper presents a novel system for accurate placement of pedicle screws. The system consists of a new light-weight (<10 kg), kinematically redundant, and fully torque controlled robot. Additionally, the pose of the robot tool-center point is tracked by an optical navigation system, serving as an external reference source. Therefore, it is possible to measure and to compensate deviations between the intraoperative and the preoperatively planned pose. The robotic arm itself is impedance controlled. This allows for a new intuitive man-machine-interface as the joint units are equipped with torque sensors: the robot can be moved just by pulling/pushing its structure. The surgeon has full control of the robot at every step of the intervention. The hand-eye-coordination problems known from manual pedicle screw placement can be omitted

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A hands-on-robot for accurate placement of pedicle screws

The requirements for an ideal telemanipulator (i.e., robot and surgical instrument) are derived. An overview on telemanipulators reported in literature is given. The new robot for telepresence surgery developed by German Aerospace Center (DLR) is presented in detail in the "DLR Robot" section. Surgical instruments equipped with miniaturized force-torque sensors and additional DoF at the distal end, also developed by DLR, are described in the "DLR Instruments" section. The last section concludes this article and gives directions for further research.

Telemanipulator for remote minimally invasive surgery

Surgery is a rapidly evolving field of applications for robotic systems. Different surgical applications, techniques and workflows as well as varying operating room setups and control methods can be realised by separate specialised robotic systems. In contrast, the DLR MiroSurge robotic system focuses on the aspects of versatility and modularity for a broad range of surgical applications. It combines three DLR MIRO robot arms with specialised endoscopic instruments, endoscopic stereo vision and a bi-manual control interface with force feedback for the surgeon. The integration into different operating room setups is simplified and the safety of the system is enhanced by its lightweight and compact design. Additionally, pre-operative planning software supports optimised setup of the robotic system in the operating room regarding singularity avoidance, maximum workspace and best dexterity. key words: telerobotics, versatility, force feedback, 3D vision, lightweight

Stephan Jörg

Papers

The DLR MIRO: a versatile lightweight robot for surgical applications

A hands-on-robot for accurate placement of pedicle screws

Telemanipulator for remote minimally invasive surgery

DLR MiroSurge -- towards versatility in surgical robotics