A Subject-Specific Four-Degree-of-Freedom Foot Interface to Control a Surgical Robot

• Published in: IEEE/ASME transactions on mechatronics Vol. 25; no. 2; pp. 951 - 963
• Main Authors: Huang, Yanpei, Burdet, Etienne, Cao, Lin, Phan, Phuoc Thien, Tiong, Anthony Meng Huat, Phee, Soo Jay
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.04.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Control equipment; Degrees of freedom; Foot; Foot interface; Force; human–machine interaction; Independent component analysis; Interfaces; Kinematics; Laparoscopes; Robot arms; Robot control; Robots; Springs; subject-specific control; Surgery; Surgical instruments; surgical robots
• ISSN: 1083-4435; 1941-014X
• DOI: 10.1109/TMECH.2020.2964295

This article introduces a passive four-degree-of-freedom foot interface to control a robotic surgical instrument. This interface is based on a parallel-serial hybrid mechanism with springs and force sensors. In contrast to existing switch-based interfaces that can command a slave robot arm at constant speed in only discrete directions, the novel interface provides an operator with intuitive control in continuous directions and speed with force and position feedback. The output command of the interface was initially derived based on the kinematics and statics of the interface. Since distinct movement patterns among different subjects were observed in a pilot test, a data-driven approach using independent component analysis was developed to convert the foot inputs to the control commands of the user. The capability of this interface in controlling a robotic arm in multiple degrees of freedom was further verified with a teleoperation test.