REAL-TIME SHAPE ESTIMATION OF CURVILINEAR FLEXIBLE SURGICAL ROBOTS: METHODS, EXPERIMENTS AND ANALYSIS

摘要

Flexible manipulators enable curvilinear accessibility through small incisions or natural orifices for minimally invasive surgery and diagnosis. To utilize flexible manipulators in complicated and constrained surgical environments, it is of great significance to simultaneously monitor the positions and shapes of the curvilinear manipulators in real time during the procedures. In our previous work, we presented a real-time shape tracking method for wire-driven flexible robots based on electromagnetic tracking. The shape estimation algorithm is based on quadratic or cubic Bezier curves. In this paper, thorough comparisons of the applications of the quadratic and cubic Bezier curves and the corresponding discussion have been provided. Based on the comparison and discussion, the application scopes of the Bezier curve-based shape estimation methods, as well as guidance on applying the methods, are introduced. We also systematically present the methods, applications and experiments of the shape monitoring method. Moreover, the shape estimation and monitoring methods have been implemented on cadaver experiments as well. Experimental results show that the shape estimation method is capable of providing the surgeons with real-time shape information of the flexible manipulators. In conclusion, we summarize general guidelines for using the Bezier curve-based shape estimation method in the real-world surgical procedures.