Smith predictor based control in teleoperated image-guided beating-heart surgery

Abstract

Surgery on a freely beating-heart is extremely difficult as the surgeon must perform the procedure while following the heart's fast motion. However, by controlling a teleoperated robot to continuously follow the heart's motion, the surgeon can operate on a seemingly stationary heart. The heart's motion is calculated from ultrasound images and thus involves a non-negligible delay estimated to be 100 ms that, if not compensated for, can cause the robot end-effector (i.e., the surgical tool) to collide with and puncture the heart. This research proposes the use of a Smith predictor to compensate for this time delay. The results suggest that this improves heart motion tracking as the mean absolute error, the difference between the surgeon's motion and the distance between the heart and surgical tool, and the mean integrated square error decreased.