Virtual Fixtures Assistance for Safe Polyp Dissection in Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery

After an accurate polyp detection, precise polyp dissection in a safe zone by the robot-assisted polypectomy is required. Virtual Fixtures (VF) provide surgeons with tactile force feedback and help operators complete high-precision and safe works successfully. This paper presents a safe and high-precise polyp dissection method combined guidance virtual fixtures and forbidden region virtual fixtures. The guidance virtual fixtures are created using a 3D curve interpolated by defining the burning points during polypectomy, and can be changed at any time according to the surgeon’s needs. The prohibited areas are generated based on 3D point clouds to prevent surgeons from harming the healthy tissues. The proposed method is verified by physical robot experiments, and the results show that it can improves both precision and safety.