Enabling Technologies for Robotically-Assisted Sutureless Coronary Anastomosis

Performing a fine manipulation task on a moving surface through a teleoperated robotic system presents significant challenges to the human operator. Addressing these challenges is particularly important in robotic surgical systems, where motion of the patient can result in surgical errors that degrade the quality of the surgery. The use of motion compensation by a robot manipulator to cancel the motion of the patient would represent a significant improvement over existing techniques. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the role of force-feedback in a motion-canceling teleoperation system. We have developed an experimental system in which the roles of motion-cancellation and teleoperation have been decoupled between separate robot manipulators. Our results lead us to the conclusion that force-feedback minimizes contact forces in motion-canceling teleoperation due to: 1) minimization of the collision forces due to the initial contact with the target surface, and 2) minimizing forces due to accidental contact generated by tracking errors by taking advantage of the naturally modulated impedance of the human hand during such tasks.