A noninvasive calibration-free and model-free surgical robot for automatic fracture reduction

Abstract

Surgical robots for femoral fracture reduction have enjoyed a surge of interest among surgeons recently because robots can avoid problems like over radiation and insufficient accuracy. However, tedious calibration procedures, complicated tissue modeling and hurtful invasive fixation restrict their clinical application. Here we introduce a novel fracture reduction idea based on visual servo to eliminate calibration, kinematics and muscle modeling and invasive markers to finish femoral fracture reduction simply and automatically. It employs images from two perpendicular directions to estimate the mapping from robot movements to displacements of limbs. We also present its satisfactory performance on simulation and skeleton experiments. Our method shows rapid convergence, stable precision and adequate domain of convergence under various circumstances. Hopefully this technique will enable a surgeon to manage several surgeries simultaneously, which offers brand new possibilities for present medical treatment.