Image-guided robotic navigation system for neurosurgery

This paper presents an image-guided robotic navigation system for neurosurgery, which can be applied to the electro-stimulation treatment of Parkinson's leisure, the biopsy of deep tumors, and haematoma evacuation. The system integrates a computer containing CT images for surgical planning, a magnetic tracking device for measuring the coordinates of the markers and surgical instruments, and a robot manipulator for guiding surgical instruments to the preplanned position and orientation. The computer display of brain anatomy offers a convenient tool for surgeons to diagnose brain diseases and to plan safe surgical paths, while the tracking device guides the robot manipulator to automatically move surgical instruments to the preplanned position and orientation. An experiment of using a skull model for simulating a robotic biopsy of brain tumor has been done to verify the performance of the robotic navigation system. The results show that the positioning accuracy of the robot relative to the tracker frame is only related to the positioning resolution of the robot manipulator and the positioning accuracy of the tracking device. In other words, the positioning accuracy of the robot manipulator does not affect the final positioning accuracy of the surgical instruments. Therefore, using a robot manipulator for precise surgical navigation is feasible and reliable.