A new autonomous camera-holder robotic system for Laparoscopic Surgery (LS) is presented in this paper. In the proposed system, a 7-DoF collaborative robot holds and moves the laparoscope, or surgical camera, so that it permanently points towards the instruments’ tips. A motion capture (MoCap) system, tracking online the surgical instruments, provides the robot's controller with instrument's motion data. Unlike the existing systems, this paper proposes an autonomous robot-assistant, freeing up surgeons from the laparoscope motion control, fully responding to the surgical community requirements. Moreover, a fully compliance control law is implemented. In task-space, it is suitable for smoothing robot movements and reducing the contact forces generated at the trocar. Null-space is also exploited through a compliance control law restricting the elbow's robot motion into a desired range, defined to avoid undesired collisions with the rest of the medical equipment. Robot Operating System (ROS) framework has been used to establish the communication between the robot and MoCap system, using the UDP protocol for data exchange. Training tasks, such as suturing training, have been performed by surgeons to validate the usefulness of the proposed platform, proving that a collaborative robot can autonomously comply with camera-holder assistant tasks.

中文翻译：

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使用外感传感器进行腹腔镜检查的自主机器人助手：可行性研究和实施


本文提出了一种用于腹腔镜手术（LS）的新型自主相机支架机器人系统。在所提出的系统中，7-DoF 协作机器人握住并移动腹腔镜或手术摄像机，使其永久指向器械的尖端。运动捕捉 (MoCap) 系统在线跟踪手术器械，为机器人控制器提供器械的运动数据。与现有系统不同，本文提出了一种自主机器人助手，将外科医生从腹腔镜运动控制中解放出来，完全满足外科界的要求。此外，还实施了全面合规控制法。在任务空间中，它适用于平滑机器人运动并减少套管针处产生的接触力。还通过合规控制律来利用零空间，将机器人肘部的运动限制在所需的范围内，以避免与其他医疗设备发生意外碰撞。机器人操作系统（ROS）框架用于建立机器人和MoCap系统之间的通信，使用UDP协议进行数据交换。外科医生已经执行了缝合训练等训练任务，以验证所提出的平台的实用性，证明协作机器人可以自主执行相机支架辅助任务。