Interaction scheme of an intelligent laparoscopic assistant robot based on a surgery task model

Abstract

Laparoscopy has become one of the most popular surgical techniques since the 1990s. Due to small incision, patients can regain health without much trauma and hospitalization; however, the operating surgeons suffer from several difficulties such as limited range of motion and loss of tactile sensation compared to open surgery. One of the important issues for successful surgery is the cooperation between the operating surgeon and the assistant as it is directly related to how the surgeon can perform surgical tasks. Novice assistants often suffer from the difficulty in properly positioning the laparoscope and the hand tremor caused by fatigue. To resolve these difficulties, some laparoscopic assistant robot systems were developed. Despite the applicability in real surgeries, these systems reveal some common limitations that should be resolved. First, these systems are known to occupy a voluminous space in the operating room and the external motion of links tends to interfere the surgeon and surgical staff. Second, a considerable number of commands are needed to control the assistant robot, while only a handful of voice commands are sufficient with a human assistant. In order to resolve these issues, this dissertation investigates (a) a compact laparoscopic assistant robot, KaLAR, and (b) intelligent interaction scheme of KaLAR based on a surgery task model. The compact laparoscopic assistant robot, KaLAR, was developed by adopting the bending mechanism. The developed KaLAR system can generate 3-DOF motion, including 2-DOF internal bending motion and 1-DOF external linear motion. Since the robot itself functions as a laparoscope, a small CCD camera module and a bundle of optical fibers were integrated as part of the system. The KaLAR’s performance and applicability in real surgery were verified through solo-surgery of $in vivo$ porcine cholecystectomies. The intelligent interaction for a surgical assistant robot means that an operating surgeon can ...