MINARO HD: control and evaluation of a handheld, highly dynamic surgical robot

Purpose Current surgical robotic systems are either large serial arms, resulting in higher risks due to their high inertia and no inherent limitations of the working space, or they are bone-mounted, adding substantial additional task steps to the surgical workflow. The robot presented in this paper has a handy and lightweight design and can be easily held by the surgeon. No rigid fixation to the bone or a cart is necessary. A high-speed tracking camera together with a fast control system ensures the accurate positioning of a burring tool. Methods The capabilities of the robotic system to dynamically compensate for unintended motion, either of the robot itself or the patient, was evaluated. Therefore, the step response was analyzed as well as the capability to follow a moving target. Results The step response show that the robot can compensate for undesired motions up to 12 Hz in any direction. While following a moving target, a maximum positioning error of 0.5 mm can be obtained with a target motion of up to 18 mm/s. Conclusion The requirements regarding dynamic motion compensation, accuracy, and machining speed of unicompartmental knee arthroplasties, for which the robot was optimized, are achieved with the presented robotic system. In particular, the step response results show that the robot is able to compensate for human tremor.

Automated summary

The robotic system presented in the paper has a handy and lightweight design, allowing it to be easily held by surgeons without the need for rigid fixation to bone or a cart. It is capable of dynamically compensating for unintended motion and achieves high precision positioning when following a moving target.