Torque Reduction of a Reconfigurable Spherical Parallel Mechanism Based on Craniotomy Experimental Data

Terence Essomba,Saïd Zeghloul,Jean-Pierre Richer,Chieh-Tsai Wu,Med Amine Laribi,Cyril Breque,Juan Sandoval

doi:10.3390/app11146534

Abstract

This paper deals with a robotic manipulator dedicated to craniotomy with a remote center of motion based on a Spherical Parallel Manipulator (SPM) architecture. The SPM is proposed to handle the drilling tool through the requested craniotomy Degrees of Freedom (DoF) with two rotations. The proposed architecture allows one degree of redundancy according to the total DoF. Thus, a first contribution of this work focuses on the experimental analysis of craniotomy surgery tasks. Secondly, its behavior is improved, taking advantage of the redundancy of the SPM using the spinning motion as a reconfiguration variable. The spinning angle modulation allows the reconfigurable manipulator to minimize its motor torques. A series of motion capture and force experimentations is performed for the analysis of the kinematic and force interaction characterizing Burr hole craniotomy procedures. Experimentations were carried out by a neurosurgeon on a human cadaver, ensuring highly realistic conditions.

Highlights

Several achievements in neurosurgery have been made in the last decade and presented advanced treatment options for patients with severe diseases, epilepsy for instance, including the exclusion of brain tissue
Two angles were used: the drill rotatedangles around theselected longitudinal axis the anddrill thenorientation
Twothe angles were used: theThe drillEuler rotated around the longitudinal axis and rotated around the transverse axis

Summary

Introduction

Several achievements in neurosurgery have been made in the last decade and presented advanced treatment options for patients with severe diseases, epilepsy for instance, including the exclusion of brain tissue. During the intervention, reaching the patient’s brain is a necessary task for the surgeon, and this can be performed during a craniotomy. Several types of drills combined with several types of tips can be used regarding the specific type of craniotomy to be performed [2], and most of them are semi-automatic. This ensures more safety constraints contrary to classic tools [3,4]. We can find no automatic drilling tool that is used in some complex interventions and by experienced neurosurgeons

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