We have developed a cooperatively-controlled robot system to assist with skull base
surgery. The goal is to improve the safety and efficacy of brain surgery while significantly
reducing the operating time. Our system has three major advantages: 1) increased mechanical
stability, 2) visualization of the tool’s position with respect to a 3D model of the
patient, and 3) enforcement of a safety boundary (virtual fixture), defined on a preoperative
image, that prevents tool penetration into critical regions. Together, these features
greatly increase the safety and the reliability of the procedure, easing the surgeon’s
task and potentially reducing the time of operation. This development leveraged research
interfaces to commercial systems, including the Medtronic StealthStation and the ISS
NeuroMate robot, as well as open source software such as 3D Slicer, Visualization
ToolKit (VTK), OpenTracker and the CISST libraries. This paper will present the details
of the system integration with a discussion of the advantages gained by using these
packages, together with some of the limitations and lessons learned.
