A Surgical Robotic System for Treatment of Pelvic Osteolysis Using an FBG-Equipped Continuum Manipulator and Flexible Instruments

Shahriar Sefati; Rachel Hegeman; Farshid Alambeigi; Iulian Iordachita; Peter Kazanzides; Harpal Khanuja; Russell H Taylor; Mehran Armand

doi:10.1109/tmech.2020.3020504

A Surgical Robotic System for Treatment of Pelvic Osteolysis Using an FBG-Equipped Continuum Manipulator and Flexible Instruments

IEEE ASME Trans Mechatron. 2021 Feb;26(1):369-380. doi: 10.1109/tmech.2020.3020504. Epub 2020 Aug 31.

Authors

Shahriar Sefati¹, Rachel Hegeman², Farshid Alambeigi³, Iulian Iordachita¹, Peter Kazanzides¹, Harpal Khanuja⁴, Russell H Taylor¹, Mehran Armand⁵

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, 21218.
² Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, 21218; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA.
³ Johns Hopkins University during the completion of this work and he is currently with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA, 78712.
⁴ Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD, USA, 21205.
⁵ Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, 21218; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA; Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD, USA, 21205.

Abstract

This paper presents the development and experimental evaluation of a redundant robotic system for the less-invasive treatment of osteolysis (bone degradation) behind the acetabular implant during total hip replacement revision surgery. The system comprises a rigid-link positioning robot and a Continuum Dexterous Manipulator (CDM) equipped with highly flexible debriding tools and a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)-based sensor. The robot and the continuum manipulator are controlled concurrently via an optimization-based framework using the Tip Position Estimation (TPE) from the FBG sensor as feedback. Performance of the system is evaluated on a setup that consists of an acetabular cup and saw-bone phantom simulating the bone behind the cup. Experiments consist of performing the surgical procedure on the simulated phantom setup. CDM TPE using FBGs, target location placement, cutting performance, and the concurrent control algorithm capability in achieving the desired tasks are evaluated. Mean and standard deviation of the CDM TPE from the FBG sensor and the robotic system are 0.50 mm, and 0.18 mm, respectively. Using the developed surgical system, accurate positioning and successful cutting of desired straight-line and curvilinear paths on saw-bone phantoms behind the cup with different densities are demonstrated. Compared to the conventional rigid tools, the workspace reach behind the acetabular cup is 2.47 times greater when using the developed robotic system.

Keywords: Continuum Manipulator; Fiber Bragg Grating; Minimally-Invasive Surgery; Orthopedic Surgery.

Grants and funding

R01 EB016703/EB/NIBIB NIH HHS/United States