Inferring material properties in robotic bone drilling processes.

PURPOSE: Recent innovations in robotics have enabled the development of automatic bone drilling tools which allows surgeons to improve the precision of their surgical operations. However, these tools still lack valuable tactile information about the material properties of the bone, preventing surgeons from making decisions while operating. The aim of this work is to explore whether robotic drilling tools can infer bone condition on the basis of certain key measures, particularly thrust force. METHODS: To infer material properties in robotic bone drilling processes 1) a complete database of experimental operations with an automatic bone drilling tool is implemented and 2) binary logistic regression models are developed to estimate the type of material from the observed values (mainly the central tendency of the thrust force). This work compares three different materials: bovine bone specimens, porcine bone specimens and FullCure 720, which is a general-purpose resin with, a priori, much less feed resistance. The DRIBON automatic bone drilling tool developed at CEIT is used for the experiments. RESULTS: The classification matrices derived using the logistic models show that it is possible to recognize a bovine bone vs. a porcine bone with a relatively high success rate rate (approximately 90%). In contrast, it is possible to recognize bone material vs. another material (in our case a resin) with a 100% of success. These results are successfully implemented in a new hand-held version of DRIBON. CONCLUSIONS: We propose a method and devise a novel hand-held tool which show that robotic systems can effectively infer bone material properties.

Medical Device for Automated Prick Test Reading.

Allergy tests are routinely performed in most hospitals everyday. However, measuring the outcomes of these tests is still a very laborious manual task. Current methods and systems lack of precision and repeatability. This paper presents a novel mechatronic system that is able to scan a patient's entire arm and provide allergists with precise measures of wheals for diagnosis. The device is based on 3-D laser technology and specific algorithms have been developed to process the information gathered. This system aims to automate the reading of skin prick tests and make gains in speed, accuracy, and reliability. Several experiments have been performed to evaluate the performance of the system.

Using an admittance algorithm for bone drilling procedures.

Bone drilling is a common procedure in many types of surgeries, including orthopedic, neurological and otologic surgeries. Several technologies and control algorithms have been developed to help the surgeon automatically stop the drill before it goes through the boundary of the tissue being drilled. However, most of them rely on thrust force and cutting torque to detect bone layer transitions which has many drawbacks that affect the reliability of the process. This paper describes in detail a bone-drilling algorithm based only on the position control of the drill bit that overcomes such problems and presents additional advantages. The implication of each component of the algorithm in the drilling procedure is analyzed and the efficacy of the algorithm is experimentally validated with two types of bones.

A haptic pedal for surgery assistance.

The research and development of mechatronic aids for surgery is a persistent challenge in the field of robotic surgery. This paper presents a new haptic pedal conceived to assist surgeons in the operating room by transmitting real-time surgical information through the foot. An effective human-robot interaction system for medical practice must exchange appropriate information with the operator as quickly and accurately as possible. Moreover, information must flow through the appropriate sensory modalities for a natural and simple interaction. However, users of current robotic systems might experience cognitive overload and be increasingly overwhelmed by data streams from multiple modalities. A new haptic channel is thus explored to complement and improve existing systems. A preliminary set of experiments has been carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed system in a virtual surgical drilling task. The results of the experiments show the effectiveness of the haptic pedal in providing surgical information through the foot.

Bone drilling methodology and tool based on position measurements.

Bone drilling, despite being a very common procedure in hospitals around the world, becomes very challenging when performed close to organs such as the cochlea or when depth control is critical for avoiding damage to surrounding tissue. To date, several mechatronic prototypes have been proposed to assist surgeons by automatically detecting bone layer transitions and breakthroughs. However, none of them is currently accurate enough to be part of the surgeon's standard equipment. The present paper shows a test bench specially designed to evaluate prior methodologies and analyze their drawbacks. Afterward, a new layer detection methodology with improved performance is described and tested. Finally, the prototype of a portable mechatronic bone drill that takes advantage of the proposed detection algorithm is presented.