Visual Servo of a 6-DOF Robotic Stereo Flexible Endoscope Based on da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) System

摘要

Endoscopes play an important role in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). Due to the advantages of less occupied motion space and enhanced safety, flexible endoscopes are drawing more and more attention. However, the structure of the flexible section makes it difficult for surgeons to manually rotate and guide the view of endoscopes. To solve these problems, we developed a 6-DOF robotic stereo flexible endoscope (RSFE) based on the da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK). Then an image-based endoscope guidance method with depth information is proposed for the RSFE. With this method, the view and insertion depth of the RSFE can be adjusted by tracking the surgical instruments automatically. Additionally, an image-based view rotation control method is proposed, with which the rotation of the view can be controlled by tracking two surgical instruments. The experimental results show that the proposed methods control the direction and rotation of the view of the flexible endoscope faster than the manual control method. Lastly, an ex vivo experiment is performed to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed control method and system.