Port placement and pose selection of the da Vinci surgical system for collision-free intervention based on performance optimization

For the operation planning of robotically assisted laparoscopic surgery, the most critical issues are the trocar port placement in the patient´s body (incision entry port for intervention) and the pose selection of the robot (docking of the robot). These significantly affect the robot´s dexterity, manipulability, reachability, and visibility, which are essential to the success of the surgical procedure. Experienced surgeons still have difficulty solving these problems. Because of possible robot part collisions, the optimal placement of ports may differ for robotically assisted procedures in comparison to traditional MIS. This paper proposes the choice of the best port location and determination of the pose of the robot based on optimization equations that are in turn based on certain evaluation criteria. Two performance measures are proposed: the global isotropy index (GII ), which has been developed to optimize the robot´s dexterity, and the efficiency index (EI) to maximize the reachability and visibility of the robot. Computerized simulations of the da Vinci surgical system for surgery in synthetic box environments are performed to find out the optimal solutions. A direct way to evaluate the feasibility of the performance measures for collision-free intervention is also illustrated. It is proved that the GII and EI are correlated and complementary. In addition, this study develops a procedure and guidelines that help the performance of an efficient intervention with the use of the da Vinci surgical system.