Interactive Navigation and Control of Neurosurgical Robotic Systems

Abstract

Trauma and head injury are an important cause of overall mortality and morbidity. Millions of people around the world suffer from neurological and functional disorders, but there are only a limited number of neurosurgeons and neurologists to help them. Due to the complex distribution of blood vessels and nerves under the skull, neurosurgical procedures are risky and require surgeons to have expertise and excellent coordination to avoid injury to the dura and to achieve safety, efficiency, and accuracy. Neurosurgical procedures are usually performed manually by a surgeon using drilling or milling devices. Most of the tools currently used in surgery depend only on the surgeon's manual skills to stop the penetration when drilling a hole or removing cranial bone to access the brain. This work presents the control theory of a robotic neurosurgical system. The aim is to build a reliable neurosurgical control system featuring intelligent control, force-feedback control, dexterity, and flexibility, along with human-robot interaction. A modular neurosurgical robotic system is developed to validate the control algorithms in a safe manner. The proposed robotic system could be used as a training platform to help students acquire the skills needed to perform surgeries on real patients and practice their technical skills without any risk to patients. This work introduces the interactive navigation of the surgical planning and control of robot movement in order to increase a surgeon’s integration in the control of a robotic system. Safety can be potentially increased due to faster surgeon reactions during the process, while drilling process parameters could be controlled automatically.