Development of an image-guided robotic system for surgical positioning and drilling

Abstract

Abstract This study develops a novel image-guided robotic system that can be used to position biopsy needles or drill fixation holes. After the patient has received a CT-scan, the registration of the image, localizer (patient), and robot frames will be done by finding the optimum transformation matrix among the image and localizer coordinates of the fiducial markers and the DRFs mounted on the robot. Then, surgical paths planned on the computer displayed images can be transformed to the robot frame, and the robot is thus capable to move surgical tools to the preplanned location. The positioning error is about 2 mm and the orientation error is about 0.23°.