Surgery Assistance Robot Tool Position Estimation and Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgery assistance robots face challenges in accurately controlling the motion of medical tools during procedures, particularly in avoiding unintended contact with surrounding tissues or organs, which can lead to complications such as bleeding or damage, especially when unexpected situations arise during minimally invasive surgeries.
Innovation Solution
A medical image diagnosis apparatus and a surgery assistance robot controlling apparatus work together to estimate the position of medical tools relative to surrounding sites using three-dimensional medical image data and operation information, allowing for real-time control of the robot arm to avoid potential contacts and ensure safe manipulation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the surgery assistance robot performs minimally invasive surgery with real-time hand movement reproduction, then surgical precision and patient recovery are improved, but the risk of unintended contact with surrounding tissues and resulting complications increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by estimating the contact state between the medical tool and surrounding site before the actual surgical operation occurs. The processing circuitry calculates expected contact states based on operation information and positional relationships, allowing the system to prepare appropriate control responses in advance to prevent harmful unintended contacts while maintaining surgical precision
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback control by using the estimated contact state information to adjust the motion control of the surgery assistance robot in real-time. The processing circuitry continuously monitors the expected contact state and modifies the robot's motion commands accordingly, creating a closed-loop control system that prevents unintended tissue contact while preserving the precision of deliberate surgical movements
2Productivity
If the robot arm moves the medical tool based on practitioner's hand movements, then surgical efficiency is improved, but control accuracy in avoiding surrounding site contact deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary estimation function between the practitioner's hand movements and the robot arm execution. The processing circuitry acts as a mediator that calculates the expected contact state based on operation information and anatomical positional relationships, then uses this intermediate information to adjust the final control commands, thereby maintaining both the efficiency of real-time operation reproduction and the precision of contact avoidance
3Reliability
If real-time control adjustment is implemented to avoid contact with surrounding sites, then patient safety is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by enabling the processing circuitry to autonomously estimate contact states and adjust control commands without requiring external intervention. The surgery assistance robot system independently calculates expected contact states based on operation information and pre-stored positional relationships, then automatically modifies its motion control to prevent harmful contacts, thereby enhancing patient safety while avoiding the complexity of additional external monitoring systems
Data Source
AI summary
A medical image diagnosis apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to obtain operation information used for putting a surgery assistance robot into motion, the surgery assistance robot holding a medical tool to be inserted into the body of a subject and being configured to move the medical tool. The processing circuitry is configured to estimate the position of the medical tool with respect to a surrounding site expected after the medical tool is moved, on the basis of a positional relationship between the medical tool inside the body of the subject and the surrounding site as well as the operation information and is configured to control the motion of the surgery assistance robot on the basis of a result of the estimation.