Comparison of Pose Correspondence Methods of Master-Slave Manipulators for Neurosurgical Robotic Systems

Abstract

Performing microsurgery in the field of neurosurgery is very challenging because neurosurgeons have to suture fine vessels by maneuvering long, thin surgical instruments inserted through a small hole in the skull. In order to assist neurosurgeons, a novel master-slave surgical robotic system has been developed. The objective of the surgical robotic system is to assist neurosurgeons in performing micro surgery in deep surgical fields by providing high dexterity. However, a method of correspondence between master and slave manipulators has not yet been studied, though this is strongly related to the operability and usability of robotic surgery. In this paper, we propose two pose correspondence methods for the master and slave manipulators, axis-based relative pose correspondence and vector-based absolute pose correspondence, and their usability and operability are verified by performing pointing and suturing tasks. The experimental results show that there is a trade-off between the two correspondence methods in terms of time, length of trajectory, and the singular point problem.