A safe robot system for craniofacial surgery

Abstract

The ultimate ambition of a robotic system in surgical theater has to be the safety of the involved humans: patient, physicians, nurses. In order to provide that claim the criteria of ergonomics, redundancy, short reaction time, and accuracy must be met. In contrast to many other surgical robotic applications we are studying complex bone cut trajectories which require several distinct orientations of the robot tool and milling cutter, respectively. Exact bone cuts are especially needed for bone repositionings placed at the human skull in craniofacial surgery. Therefore, the system has to be flexible enough to keep the capability of changing the patient's position during the intra-operative phase. This paper introduces the overall concept and realization of the system.