Coordinated control and experimentation of the dental arch generator of the tooth-arrangement robot

Background The traditional way of acquiring the dental arch curve form is based on manual operation, which will randomly bring numerous errors caused by human factors. The purpose of this paper is to automatically acquire the dental arch curve and implement the coordinated control of the dental arch generator of the multi-manipulator tooth-arrangement robot, which can be used in full denture manufacturing. Methods Based on the arc length constant theory, kinematics on dental arch generator is analyzed. The control pulse realization methods of high-resolution timing and CPU time-stamp timing are studied, and testing and comparative analysis of the control precision and stability of the two methods is carried out. Control experimentation of the dental arch generator and preliminary tooth-arrangement experimentation are performed using the multi-manipulator tooth-arrangement robot system. Results The dental arch generator can automatically generate a dental arch curve that fits a patient according to the patient's jaw arch parameters. Repeated positioning accuracy is 0.12 mm for the slipways which drive the dental arch generator. The maximum value of single point error is 1.64 mm when the arc width direction (x-axis) is 37.25 mm. The experimental results indicate that the method of control pulse realized by high-resolution timing to achieve high precision coordinated motion control of dental arch generator of tooth-arrangement robot is feasible. The error analysis results indicate that the control strategy and technical route can fulfill the requirements for motion speed and location precision. Conclusion A novel system to generate the tooth arch curve has been developed. The traditional method of manually determining the dental arch may soon become obsolete in favour of the use of a robot to assist in generating a more standard tooth arch curve. The system can be used to manufacture a full denture. It will lay an important theoretical foundation for quantitative research of oral restoration, and also provide a way to standardize the manufacturing process of full denture. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.