Design of neuro-BH system for robot assisted neurosurgery

Robot assisting surgery is being used in many medical fields. In this paper, the authors introduce a general workflow for robot assisted neurosurgery, which includes four steps: data acquisition, surgical planning, registration and robot assisted surgery. Based on the workflow, we design a Neuro-BH robot system for neurosurgery. In order to accurately position the end of the robot during operation, the robot arm must occupy the least space, be easy to move and be well balanced. Cylindrical configuration is chosen in this case as a suitable type of arm. Based on the Jocobian matrix of robot and the conditioning number of the matrix, the optimal dexterous region of the robot is found to satisfy desired dexterity. During operation, the surgeons can make the surgery planning on the model in the computer. Robot is used as a navigator to direct the surgery planning and as an instrument platform to assist surgeons to accomplish these operations. The successful clinical application verifies the effectiveness of the Neuro-BH robot.