Simulation and error analysis for a stereotactic pointing system

An analysis is presented of a six degree-of-freedom, three-link passive point device. The device is to be used in intracranial neurosurgery for the location of the present surgical position relative to targets of interest or concern. The primary design constraint was that the device was to have a Euclidean endpoint positional error of no greater than 1 mm across the entire volume of the surgical field. The error value was selected based on two concerns. The method of analysis consists of determining a desirable physical pointer configuration, solving the inverse kinematics equation using the Denevits-Hartenberg (D-H) parameters to obtain an analytic solution for each joint angle, and generating positional errors across the surgical volume. Modeling, error generation, and analysis were accomplished through integration of previously existing robotics simulation procedures (ROBOSIM), modified procedures, and original software