A new image guided surgical robot for precision bone sculpturing

The number of people with hearing loss and tumours increase, as the population is getting older and the world is getting louder. This poses increasing demands on healthcare, both in numbers and capabilities. For a number of specific applications new medical robots possibly can increase quality as well as reduce costs of healthcare. A new precision surgical robot design is presented which enables precise, safe, fast and less invasive bone removal, with a focus on procedures in the skull (base) and ear. The compact robot can operate autonomously using CT image data, but can also be driven manually by the surgeon. After determination of the robots' requirements, a deterministic process was used to select the best concept from multiple generated robotic concepts. A compact serial robotic arm with seven axes, built from modular units, gives the possibility to have a high rigidity, dexterity, large range of motion and low-cost design, while being able to achieve sufficient accuracy of an estimated 50 μm. Moreover, it is designed to withstand milling and drilling forces up to 50 N and usable in the medical operating room with minimal intervention. The weight of the seven- Axis robot with its base is estimated to be 9 kg. In future medical operating rooms, this precision robot may reduce the amount of bone removed up to a factor 30, could improve safety and could enable new surgical procedures. It might reduce bone-milling time from hours into minutes, being able to help more patients and reduce costs. Exact numbers will be generated after realisation and testing of one module and the full robot, which will be steps in future research.