Maximizing Dexterous Workspace and Optimal Port Placement of a Multi-Arm Surgical Robot

Surgical procedures are traditionally performed by two or more surgeons along with staff nurses. One surgeon serves as the primary surgeon and the other serves as his/her assistant. Surgical robotics have redefined the dynamics in which the two surgeons interact with each other and with the surgical site. Raven IV is a new generation of the surgical robot system having four articulated robotic arms in a spherical configuration, each holding an articulated surgical tool. The system allows two surgeons to teleoperate the Raven IV collaboratively from two remote sites. The current research effort aims to configure the link architecture of each robotic arm, along with the position (port placement) and orientation of the Raven IV with respect to the patient, in order to optimize the common workspace reachable by all four robotic arms. The simulation results indicate that tilting the base of the robotic arms in the range of -20 to 20 deg while moving the ports closer together up to 50 mm apart leads to a preferred circular shape of the common workspace with an isotropy value of 0.5. A carefully configured system with multiple surgical robotic arms will enhance the interactive performance of the two surgeons.