Robotic Surgical Tool Correction for Precision
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current manual surgical operations, especially in orthopedic and soft tissue procedures, face challenges in achieving high precision due to the limitations of human dexterity, leading to potential damage to anatomical structures despite proximity warnings, as reliance on surgeon skill can result in conservative safety margins and inaccuracies.
Innovation Solution
A robotic system that remains transparent and locked within allowed regions but becomes actively controlled when the surgeon deviates, using real-time navigation or imaging systems to correct the tool's path and pose, ensuring it stays within predetermined boundaries, even when the surgeon's hand strays beyond allowed limits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If free-hand manual operation is used by the surgeon, then ease of operation is maintained, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to limitations of human dexterity
Solution Approach 1:
A robotic system acts as an intermediary between the surgeon's manual operation and the surgical tool. The robot receives control signals from the surgeon and executes them with higher precision, while also providing real-time feedback and correction to maintain accuracy. This mediator resolves the contradiction by combining the ease of manual control with machine-level precision.
2Reliability
If conservative safety margins are used to avoid damage to anatomical structures, then reliability improves, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to inability to operate closer to sensitive areas
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic system incorporates real-time feedback mechanisms including proximity sensors and imaging systems that continuously monitor the position of the surgical tool relative to sensitive anatomical structures. This feedback allows the system to maintain conservative safety margins while operating closer to sensitive areas than manual control would permit, resolving the contradiction between safety and precision.
3Manufacturing precision
If robotic correction is applied to maintain tool within allowed region, then manufacturing precision improves, but device complexity increases due to addition of control systems
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic system incorporates self-correction capabilities where the control system automatically adjusts the tool position and orientation to maintain it within the allowed region. The system monitors its own performance and makes real-time corrections without requiring constant external intervention, thereby achieving high precision while managing complexity through automation.
4Reliability
If real-time sensor warnings are provided to alert surgeon of hazardous features, then reliability improves, but manufacturing precision deteriorates because reliance on surgeon dexterity remains
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces reliance on the surgeon's manual dexterity with automated robotic control for precise positioning. While proximity sensors continue to provide safety warnings, the robotic system takes over the critical function of maintaining precise tool positioning, eliminating the bottleneck of human dexterity and achieving both high safety and high precision simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
A hand held robotic system that remains stiff so long as it is operating within allowed limits, but which become actively controlled once the operator exceeds those limits. The system thus corrects deviations by more than a predetermined amount of the operator's hand motions, so that the tool remains in the allowed region even when the operator's hand deviates from the planned trajectory. The pose and path of the robotic operating head is ascertained by means of a navigation or tracking system, or by means of a proximity device to measure the closeness of the operating head to a damage sensitive feature. As the tool deviates from its predetermined path or pose, or comes too close to the hazardous area, the robot control acts to move the tool back to its predetermined pose or path, or away from the hazardous region, independently of user's hand movement.