Position planning for collaborating robots and its application in neurosurgery

Abstract

Applications of robot manipulators in surgery are nowadays a very actual field of research. Still, there are a number of technical problems when setting and preparing robotical systems for various operation procedures. One of them is the robot-patient placement. When placing robots in respect to known target working positions it is crucial to assure feasible positioning where all required motions can be executed with no kinematic or collision problems. A planning method for robot placement suitable for neurosurgical operations is presented in this paper. The planning method is based on a multi-objective cost function which is composed of criteria that balance dexterity properties with a novel collision avoiding parameter. Use of the planning approach is implemented and validated on a dual arm robot setup.

Keywords

• robot
• collaboration
• position planning
• neurosurgery