Physician-Friendly Tool Center Point Calibration Method for Robot-Assisted Puncture Surgery

After each robot end tool replacement, tool center point (TCP) calibration must be performed to achieve precise control of the end tool. This process is also essential for robot-assisted puncture surgery. The purpose of this article is to solve the problems of poor accuracy stability and strong operational dependence in traditional TCP calibration methods and to propose a TCP calibration method that is more suitable for a physician. This paper designs a special binocular vision system and proposes a vision-based TCP calibration algorithm that simultaneously identifies tool center point position (TCPP) and tool center point frame (TCPF). An accuracy test experiment proves that the designed special binocular system has a positioning accuracy of ±0.05 mm. Experimental research shows that the magnitude of the robot configuration set is a key factor affecting the accuracy of TCPP. Accuracy of TCPF is not sensitive to the robot configuration set. Comparison experiments show that the proposed TCP calibration method reduces the time consumption by 82%, improves the accuracy of TCPP by 65% and improves the accuracy of TCPF by 52% compared to the traditional method. Therefore, the method proposed in this article has higher accuracy, better stability, less time consumption and less dependence on the operations than traditional methods, which has a positive effect on the clinical application of high-precision robot-assisted puncture surgery.