BRIGIT, a Robotized Tool Guide for Orthopedic Surgery

The BRIGIT project (Bone Resection Instrument Guidance by Intelligent Telemanipulator) aims at developing a surgical robot for orthopedic surgery. This robot should be used as a positioner of a guide providing a mechanical support during bone sawing or drilling. The planned position of the guide is obtained after a registration procedure consisting in collecting anatomical landmarks on the surface of the patient´s bone. This can be done in a cooperative mode, by grabbing the tool tip, through an appropriate force control, or in a teleoperated mode via a master device. In order to facilitate the installation of the robot in the operating theatre and to improve its performance, a procedure based on interval analysis has been developed to optimize the robot placement with respect to the patient, the surgical staff, and the obstacles of the environment.