A novel robot-assisted bonesetting system

This paper reports the development of a robotic system to assist surgeons to perform bonesetting operation, such as femur or tibia fracture, in which interlocking intramedullary nail are widespread to combine bones. As for ordinary procedures, sometimes the nails are distorted, so it is difficult to lock the screw in the bone. And in such a situation, surgeons have to operate under X-ray directly. Consequently the harm to the surgeon is very serious, and the operation effect is disillusionary. A novel robot-assisted bonesetting system is being developed to solve these problems. The system can assist surgeon to reposition fracted long bone and lock the interlocking intramedullary nail. It can be executed in three modes: telesurgery, semi-autonomous surgery and autonomous surgery. The destination is autonomous surgery., i.e. once configured by surgeons, the system can fulfill the part of bone repositioning and interlocking intramedullary nail locking. In order to accomplish interlocking intramedullary nail procedure, the system consists of automatic operating table, exact fluoroscopy unit, fracture reposition robot, guiding robot, computer control system and surgeon console, as well as some function units, which are image acquisition & processing and calibration system, tele-operation system, virtual operation simulation system and human-machine interface. All mentioned above are presented in detail in this paper.