Abstract
Robotic-assisted orthopaedic procedures demand accurate spatial joint measurements. Tracking of human joint motion is challenging in many applications, such as in sport motion analyses. In orthopaedic surgery, these challenges are even more prevalent, where small errors may cause iatrogenic damage in patients – highlighting the need for robust and precise joint and instrument tracking methods. In this study, we present a novel kinematic modelling approach to track any anatomical points on the femur and / or tibia by exploiting optical tracking measurements combined with a priori computed tomography information. The framework supports simultaneous tracking of anatomical positions, from which we calculate the pose of the leg (joint angles and translations of both the hip and knee joints) and of each of the surgical instruments. Experimental validation on cadaveric data shows that our method is capable of measuring these anatomical regions with sub-millimetre accuracy, with a maximum joint angle uncertainty of ±0.47°. This study is a fundamental step in robotic orthopaedic research, which can be used as a ground-truth for future research such as automating leg manipulation in orthopaedic procedures.
Highlights
Over the last two decades, robot-assisted procedures have become an adopted standard in many surgical theatres
We present a novel method using inverse kinematic principals to semi-directly measure the pose of the leg through a 3D motion capture system, combined with Computed Tomography (CT) data
Optical tracking, rigid body designs, CT measurements, measurement uncertainty and kinematic analysis presented in this study, form the first integrated system for accurate spatial joint measurements suitable for research in robotic orthopaedic surgery
Summary
Over the last two decades, robot-assisted procedures have become an adopted standard in many surgical theatres. We present a novel method using inverse kinematic principals to semi-directly measure the pose of the leg through a 3D motion capture system, combined with Computed Tomography (CT) data This data is used to accurately reconstruct the pose of the femur and tibia that include the nine DOF rotations and translations in the knee and hip joints. Due to surgical accuracy required to track both the leg parameters and surgical instrument positions, we use a combination of optical rigid bodies, CT scan data and optical reference markers in combination with a kinematic transformation model to measure key positions in the leg and on the instruments to sub-millimetre accuracy. In this study we develop and integrate optical tracking volumes and measurements with a priori CT scan data and kinematic transformation theory, to determine points in the leg from which joint parameters such as knee angles can be calculated. To determine the accuracy of the results, the uncertainty of measuring the leg parameters are calculated to determine the fitness of the data for joint manipulation
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