Remote Center of Motion for Redundant Robotic-Assisted Ultrasound Guided Regional Anesthesia

Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) becomes a standard procedure in surgical operations and contributes to pain management; it offers the advantages of the needle and targeted nerve detection and provides the visualization of regions of interest such as anatomical structures. In UGRA, the remote center of motion (RCM) constitutes an essential issue as the anesthetist has to manipulate a needle inside the human body. However, RCM imposes a very challenging task, where it is important to ensure that the needle should move within the constraints of the insertion point in order to prevent patient harm. To respond to this need, this paper proposes a control framework for robot-assisted UGRA for physical human-robot collaboration using 7 degrees of freedom robot manipulator (Franka Emika). This paper shows a geometric method computing the intended robot’s end-effect position with respect to the RCM constraints. This method helps the anesthetist to execute a more sophisticated motion within the patient’s body with high accuracy.