Collaborative Robots for Surgical Applications

Abstract

This works presents the impact that collaborative robotic technologies can offer for surgical applications, with emphasis on the tracking and execution steps. In particular, a new workflow for spine and trauma surgery is presented, in which a miniature mechanical tracker is attached directly to the patients’ bony structure (Patent pending). The tracker is capable of following the patients’ motion with high precision, measuring the deviation with respect to the trajectories defined in the surgical plan and providing a feedback channel to a robot which assists the surgeon holding the surgical tools in place. The clinical application of vertebral fusion has been chosen as testing scenario and preliminary results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of this concept.