Optimization-based inverse kinematic analysis of an experimental minimally invasive robotic surgery system

This paper describes an experimental minimally invasive surgical robot evaluation platform, in which a Phantom Omni haptic device is used as the master controller and a 7 degree-of-freedom Barrett arm is utilized as the biomimetic surgery robot manipulator. Remote center of motion (RCM) can be implemented by mechanical constraint or by virtual constraint. The mechanically constrained method employs mechanisms such as a double parallelogram to physically enforce the RCM. The virtually constrained method is more flexible and could be applied to traditional manipulators but requires an inverse kinematic analysis. We developed a novel optimization method to map the movement of the master haptic device to the slave surgery robot manipulator. The mapping algorithms were validated numerically and visually. The resulting trajectories, obtained while virtually constraining the RCM, were smooth and accurate.