A New Breakthrough Detection Method for Bone Drilling in Robotic Orthopedic Surgery with Closed-Loop Control Approach

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Robotics in Surgery
• Surgical Safety

Background:

• Orthopedic surgery requires precise bone drilling to prevent soft tissue damage.
• Conventional drills lack breakthrough detection, necessitating costly and complex modifications for enhanced safety.
• Existing advanced methods often require expensive additional sensors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a cost-effective breakthrough detection method for robotic orthopedic bone drilling.
• To utilize closed-loop control signals for real-time detection of drill breakthrough.
• To enhance safety and reduce risks associated with bone drilling operations.

Main Methods:

• A novel breakthrough detection approach leveraging closed-loop control characteristics was proposed.
• A feature set combining closed-loop signals and force sensor data was created.
• K-Nearest and Ensemble Classifiers were trained for breakthrough detection using synthetic and animal bone models.

Main Results:

• The method achieved high accuracy: 96.9% ± 0.8% for synthetic bone and 98.1% ± 0.2% for sheep femur bone.
• Breakthrough detection delay was minimal, ensuring drill bit stoppage within an acceptable range (1.0413 mm).
• Accurate detection was achieved using only closed-loop control signals, eliminating the need for extra sensors.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method offers a reliable and cost-effective solution for breakthrough detection in robotic bone drilling.
• Utilizing closed-loop signals simplifies the system and reduces overall costs.
• This approach can also estimate drill bit status, improving robotic orthopedic surgery safety.