Although the use of surgical robots in hospitals is growing every year, adoption rates are still low. Robots tend to be large and designed specifically for one operation. Tracking systems also take up space and are difficult to incorporate into the operating room. As a result, there is a gap in the surgical robot field for one that is small, versatile for several procedures, and has its own compact tracking system.

This work outlines the development of a new surgical robotic system designed for a variety of procedures along with a novel reaction load-based navigation system referred to as “force-space navigation”. The robot was first tested by performing ear reconstruction. Following high accuracy and fast results, a second larger, faster robot accomplished similar results in a nasal reconstruction test. This demonstrated the speed, accuracy, and versatility of this system.

Along with the ear reconstruction test, reaction loads were measured pre-operatively and during operation. Close load agreement showed promise for use as navigation. During the nose reconstruction tests, meshless finite element (FE) software was utilized to calculate pre-operative loads and compared them to measured loads during operation. The meshless FE loads were also used in navigation tests showing good accuracy. These results allowed for the elimination of the physical calibration process that is currently needed for force-space navigation where loads are pre-operatively measured.

The last major hurdle for force-space navigation is developing a methodology for transforming the loads. First, load transformation based on a material change was investigated. A system that utilized sampling points for curving fitting and interpolation was able to transform the loads. These transformed loads were then used for navigation resulting in low positional errors. Next, this transformation methodology was refined reducing the number of sample points needed and generalizing the transformation for both a material change and a position/orientation misalignment. The transformed loads yielded low position and orientation errors when utilized for navigation.

Collectively, this dissertation demonstrated a fast, compact, versatile, and highly accurate surgical robotic system with a more complete navigation system eliminating the need for calibration with the ability to make a load-based coordinate transformation.