Configuration, Layout, and Pose Optimization of Surgical Robotic System

Surgical robot assistant systems have been widely applied in surgical operations to improve the efficiency of surgeons. However, in the crowded and unstructured operation room, improper configuration, layout, and pose of the robot can cause the collision easily, affecting the surgeon's performance and increasing setup time. Therefore, the optimization of the surgical system is necessary, which is still missing in the literature. Hence, a capability map (CM) with reachable and manipulability information for the surgical robot is proposed in this work, which provides a reference to optimize the surgical robot. Based on the generated CMs, the configuration in which the robot end-effector is vertical to the instrument/endoscope has a larger workspace and higher manipulability, which is more suitable in the surgical application. In addition, the optimal layout can be chosen easily with the CM and cloud point of the obstacle. Finally, the robot's initial pose with maximum manipulability can be calculated through the pose traversal.