Optimal Robotic Setup of Workplaces in Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery

Abstract

The setup of robotically assisted surgical systems (RASS) is essential for safe interventions. In order to find an optimal robotic setup, various aspects such as computation of the robot's capability and reachability within its workspace, specification of the tasks in a machine-readable manner, and computation of the potential collisions during the task execution are typically considered. To achieve this, this thesis integrates concepts of workspace analysis, task specification, and collision avoidance for the MiroSurge teleoperation system developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The system consists of redundant manipulators known as the MIRO robot designed for medical field applications. The proposed workflow allows the user to abstract the setup planning task into a numerical optimization problem which is then solved using a Genetic Algorithm. It finds an optimal base and trocar placement for the minimally invasive robotic surgery setup. The results of the experiments demonstrate that the utilized integration of the concepts yields adequate setup planning for the target application domain of minimally invasive robotic surgery.