Computer-assisted robotic system for autonomous unicompartmental knee arthroplasty

Abstract

Robotic-assisted technology has proven to enhance the accuracy of bone resection and implant placement. However, robotic-assisted technology suffers from slow speed and high cost. Moreover, usually surgeries require the performance of radioactive scans. Therefore, the aim of this research is to build a low-cost autonomous system to perform rUKA (robotic Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty). A novel image-free registration process has been developed to eliminate the need for radioactive scans. Additionally, a CNC machine was built to perform autonomous resection. The proposed system was tested on a set of artificial tibia bones, and analysing their surfaces of the proposed system on the tibia bones was compared to Mako and BlueBelt systems. Mean error of the tibial resections was 1.9 mm compared to 2.87 mm for the Mako system, and 3.07 mm for the BlueBelt. The maximum error for the proposed system was 2.9 mm compared to 4.99 mm in the Mako and 4.5 mm in BlueBelt. To access the code, click here https://github.com/OmarShalash/TelesurgeryAutonomousControl.git