Guaranteed Active Constraints Enforcement On Point Cloud-Approximated Regions For Surgical Applications

In this work, a passive physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) controller is proposed to intraoperatively ensure that sensitive tissues will not be damaged by the robot's tool. The proposed scheme uses the point cloud of the restricted region's surface as constraint definition and Artificial Potential fields for constraint enforcement. The controller is proven to be passive with respect to the interaction force and to guarantee constraint satisfaction in all cases. The proposed methodology is experimentally validated by the kinesthetic guidance of a KUKA LWR4+ robot's end-effector driving a virtual slave KUKA in the vicinity of a 3D point-cloud of a kidney and its adjacent vessels.