Navigation with minimal occupation volume for teleoperated snake-like surgical robots: MOVE

Master-Slave control is a common mode of operation for surgical robots as it ensures that surgeons are always in control and responsible for the procedure. Most teleoperated surgical systems use low degree-of-freedom (DOF) instruments, thus facilitating direct mapping of manipulator position to the instrument pose and tip location (tip-to-tip mapping). However, with the introduction of continuum and snake-like robots with much higher DOF supported by their inherent redundant architecture for navigating through curved anatomical pathways, there is a need for developing effective kinematic methods that can actuate all the joints in a controlled fashion. This paper introduces the concept of navigation with Minimal Occupation VolumE (MOVE), a teleoperation method that extends the concept of follow-the-leader navigation. It defines the path taken by the head while using all the available space surrounding the robot constrained by individual joint limits. The method was developed for the i ² Snake robot and validated with detailed simulation and control experiments. The results validate key performance indices such as path following, body weights, path weights, fault tolerance and conservative motion. The MOVE solver can run in real-time on a standard computer at frequencies greater than 1 kHz.