A pneumatic laparoscope holder controlled by head movement

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In traditional laparoscopic surgery, the laparoscope is handled by a camera assistant according to verbal instructions from the surgeon. Thus there is a strong need for a laparoscope holder who intuitively provides the appropriate view with excellent stability. METHODS: A pneumatically driven robotic arm was developed to hold and manipulate a laparoscope. The robotic arm is operated by the user's head movement, which is measured with gyroscopes attached to the operator's head and body. RESULTS: We confirmed experimentally that head tracking can be performed accurately using the proposed method. The experimental results indicated that the robotic camera holder has sufficient dynamic characteristics to quickly follow the operator's head movement. CONCLUSIONS: A laparoscope holder control system has been developed. In this system, a laparoscope is held by a pneumatically driven robotic arm that is controlled to follow the operator's head movement. The experimental results prove the effectiveness of the system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.