A robotic system for total knee replacement

This paper describes a new robot developed specifically for invasive orthopedic surgery. The design has been a cooperative development among physicians and engineers to achieve the necessary functionality. The target surgery is a total knee replacement and the procedure is integrated with computerized data acquisition and path planning for off-line pre-operative planning, and with online intra-operative real-time controls for adjustments during surgery. The paper describes the main features of the robotic system in terms of mechanical, programming and functional characteristics. The rationale of the design decisions is presented and current experimental plans are discussed