Tracked arm manipulator for lumpectomy

In this paper, we present a tracked and semimotorized arm manipulator system aiming to provide accurate positioning information for breast biopsy tool to be used as a treatment device. The system is integrated with augmented reality (AR) and visual reality (VR) visualization. Two tracking systems were used on the arm, camera tracking and encoder tracking to simultaneously track the ultrasound probe and surgical tool. Stereo-camera is used to track an optical marker, which is temporary mounted. The marker is removed once the initial location of the arms is computed and encoder-based tracking takes over. On each passive joint of the arm system, a rotary encoder is installed which tells the angle of each joint. Therefore the positions of both ultrasound probe and surgical tool are known. The surgical tool is fitted onto a motorized 2 degree of freedom (DOF) with motorized cutting sequence, which enables cutting planning, probe positioning and controlled tissue cutting procedure. The prototype of the system proved the concept and future work is expected to improve the accuracy.