Intelligent control of neurosurgical robot MM-3 using dynamic motion scaling

OBJECTIVEAdvanced and intelligent robotic control is necessary for neurosurgical robots, which require great accuracy and precision. In this article, the authors propose methods for dynamically and automatically controlling the motion-scaling ratio of a master-slave neurosurgical robotic system to reduce the task completion time.METHODSThree dynamic motion-scaling modes were proposed and compared with the conventional fixed motion-scaling mode. These 3 modes were defined as follows: 1) the distance between a target point and the tip of the slave manipulator, 2) the distance between the tips of the slave manipulators, and 3) the velocity of the master manipulator. Five test subjects, 2 of whom were neurosurgeons, sutured 0.3-mm artificial blood vessels using the MM-3 neurosurgical robot in each mode.RESULTSThe task time, total path length, and helpfulness score were evaluated. Although no statistically significant differences were observed, the mode using the distance between the tips of the slave manipula...