Control performance of a motion controller for robot-assisted surgery

Total Knee/Hip Replacement(TKR/THR) is one of the most important orthopedic surgical techniques of this century. If patient´s whole joint is damaged, an artificial joint (total hip/knee replacement surgery) can relieve patient´s pain and help the patient get back normal activities. The goal for TKR/THR is to relieve the pain in the joint caused by the damage done to the cartilage. The surgeon will replace the damaged parts of the joint. The article looks at the use of the commercialized version of ROBODOC to execute THR/TKR robotic surgery. It consists of a robotic arm, a robot case, a control cabinet and etc. The motion controller is constructed hierarchically; a high-level motion controller to receive robot trajectories from the ORTHDOC preoperative planning system, a low-level motion controller to do position/force servo, a robot base to control several input/output devices. The contribution of this paper is to upgrade the current low-level controller in the real time OS environment and the force guidance function. The force guidance function is useful in surgeon´s intuitive and direct teaching of ROBODOC.