Admittance control of a handheld microsurgical instrument

Abstract

The current state of the art in neurosurgery for deep-seated brain tumors and cerebrovascular lesions still yields high postoperative rates of cerebral infarction and cranial nerve deficits. In particular, petroclival meningioma resection is one of the most challenging and risky procedures: reported rates of permanent cranial nerve deficits range from 20% to 76%, while the rate of gross total resection ranges from 20% to 85%. Robotics has potential to reduce morbidity and mortality by performing assistive functions such as reduction of unwanted motion and minimization of force applied to nerves and vascular structures. Handheld robotic instruments for neurosurgery may offer advantages in terms of cost and ease of use compared to other approaches such as teleoperated or shared-control robots. This paper describes a method for minimization of force applied by an active handheld robotic micromanipulator known as Micron.