An increasing number of surgical procedures are being performed using minimally invasive robotic techniques. They are performed using a surgical platform, where surgical instruments are attached to robotic arms that are guided by the surgeon via a console. In the future, we would like to see autonomous robotic procedures, where the robot would autonomously perform the planned surgical procedures under the supervision of the surgeon. For such research, we need an appropriate research platform.
In thesis, we present the selection and set-up of a surgical research platform. We used the Kuka LWR robotic arm and the Da Vinci Xi surgical tool. We implemented a software solution for Remote Centre of Motion (RCM) constraint using a virtual robotic joint and null space. We performed one of the typical tasks for laparoscopic surgery, and performed it both with and without the use of the algorithm. After completing the task, we conducted an evaluation of the algorithm and determined that it enables accurate implementation of the Remote Centre of Motion constraint. However, we noticed that when using the algorithm, the error between the desired and the current end effector pose increases. We have also carried out tests to see how the effect of noise affects the Remote Centre of Motion constraint. We found that as the noise increases, the error of the constraint increases. In the conclusion, we also discussed potential improvements to the research platform that could further improve the performance of surgical interventions.
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