Robot-Based Autonomous Neuroregistration and Neuronavigation: Implementation and Case Studies.

Abstract

To conduct an autonomous robot-based neurosurgical procedure in the least time with high accuracy. Further, to analyze and validate the method. The coordinates of the markers and the region of interest in the medical image space are measured. Subsequently, in the real patient space, a set of algorithms plans the robot motion. The surgical robot attached with a camera autonomously navigates toward the fiducial markers to measure the coordinates and conduct the neuroregistration. The robot also facilitates the precise constrained guiding path to navigate the surgical tool to reach the region of interest (target) selected in the image. The phantom was registered within 1 mm accuracy in all cases for all poses. High-precision navigation to the target in all poses was shown. The robot is successful in conducting hands-off neuroregistration and neuronavigation. The accuracy is considerably higher, and the time taken is lesser relative to the manual procedure.