Multi-Arm Robotic Surgery With Unified Coordinates for Tool Guidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing robotic surgical systems face challenges in accurately relating the position and orientation of surgical tools with preoperative surgical plans or intraoperative images, particularly in systems using virtual C-arms, where precise alignment and registration are often required but can introduce inaccuracies.
Innovation Solution
A robotic surgical system utilizing a common base for at least two robotic arms, one carrying an imaging source and the other a detector, with a third arm optionally holding a surgical tool, where the coordinate systems of all arms are interrelated, allowing direct alignment and guidance of the tool based on intraoperative images without the need for registration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If registration procedures are used to relate surgical tool pose with preoperative images, then alignment accuracy can be improved, but registration inaccuracies and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing the spatial relationship between the robotic arm coordinate system and the imaging system coordinate system through calibration procedures. This pre-calibration allows the system to directly relate surgical tool positions to intraoperative images without requiring time-consuming registration procedures during surgery, thus resolving the contradiction between alignment accuracy and registration time.
2Adaptability or versatility
If virtual C-arms with robotically aligned elements are used, then imaging flexibility is improved, but coordinate system alignment complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the coordinate systems of the robotic arm and the imaging system by establishing a direct spatial relationship between them through calibration. This merging eliminates the need for separate registration procedures and complex coordinate transformations, thereby reducing the complexity of coordinate system alignment while maintaining the imaging flexibility provided by robotically aligned virtual C-arms.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple robotic arms with separate coordinate systems are used, then functional versatility is improved, but pose relationship determination becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary coordinate transformation model that relates the coordinate systems of multiple robotic arms through a common calibration reference. This intermediary model allows the system to determine pose relationships between different robotic arms by transforming coordinates through the calibrated spatial relationships, thereby resolving the difficulty of pose relationship determination while maintaining functional versatility.
Data Source
AI summary
A robotic surgical system comprising at least two robotic arms having co-ordinate systems known relative to each other, one of the arms carrying an X-ray source, and the other an imaging detector plate. The arms are disposed to enable an image to be generated on the region of interest of a subject. One of the arms can additionally or alternatively carry a surgical tool or tool holder, such that the pose of the tool is known in the same co-ordinate system as that of an image generated by the X-ray source and detector. Consequently, any surgical procedure planned on such an X-ray image can be executed by the tool with high accuracy, since the tool position is known in the image frame of reference. This enables the surgeon to accurately position his tool in a real-time image without the need for an external registration procedure.