Many people suffer the consequences of knee pain. The condition can be improved by undergoing orthopedic surgery. One type of such surgery is total knee arthroplasty (TKA). In this procedure the damaged or worn-out surface of the joint is replaced with a knee prosthesis. Conventional methods for performing these surgeries are quite successful, but there remains significant room for improvement. This can be achieved with the use of robot technology.
In this work, we present the development of a robotic system that helps the surgeon perform a single femur cut. This cut is needed to enable the insertion of the prosthesis. The accuracy of this cut has a significant impact on the outcome of the surgery. To carry out this task, we need to achieve two main goals. The first is the determination of the cut plane, and the second is appropriate robot control.
The cut plane is determined based on the anatomy of the bone. We have implemented a program that captures the anatomy data based on the measurements of the optical tracking system and uses this data to calculate the cut plane. We have also created the impedance controller that acts as a virtual fixture.
In this mode, the robot can be moved by hand, but only in such a way that the saw guide, attached to the robot, remains aligned with the cut plane.
We also performed measurements of the saw guide pose error. We found that robot control is quite successful, but the accuracy of this system is not sufficient for the demands of a real surgical procedure.
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