Guest post from Simon Roder from University of Bern, Institute for Surgical Technology & Biomechanics
The goal of our research is the development of a precision approach for minimally invasive hearing aid implantations. Our approach centers around a imaged-guided surgical robot system, capable of drilling a direct tunnel access (diameter 1.2 mm) from the outside of the skull, through the Temporal Bone into the middle ear. The drill trajectory is planned using high-resolution cone beam computer tomography. The deviation between the planned and the actual drill trajectory shall be less then 0.5 mm in order to avoid damaging sensible nerves within the temporal bone.
To achieve such accuracy, our system consists of a specifically developed robotic manipulator with a 5 DOF serial kinematic, guided by an optical tracking system with a tracking accuracy of 20 microns. The robot weights around 5 kg and can thus be mounted directly to an OR table. It comprises a sensitive force-torque sensor in its tool tip and a electromyography (EMG) sensor integrated in the instrument tip. The surgeon controls the system functionalities by means of a graphical user interface and the robot system itself through haptic force feedback.
The robot system together with available patient data is modeled using ROS to observe the robots movements, its sensors and possible collisions in real-time. The model is updated and visualized using Rviz running on a dedicated client computer connected via CAN to the robot control system.
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