2020 Volume 38 Issue 5 Pages 228-235
Endoscopic surgery is an interaction between surgical instruments and organs performed by an operating surgeon based on endoscopic images. Image analysis technology that extracts quantitative intraoperative information in real time is paramount for improving the levels of autonomy (LoAs) of surgical assistant robots supporting the surgeon. This paper reports two achievements of the research group A03-KB102―entitled “Autonomous control of a surgical assistant robot with a stereoscopic endoscope that can obtain depth information in real time”―in the multidisciplinary computational anatomy (MCA) project: (1) estimating the distance between the tip of a surgical instrument and the organ surface and (2) estimating the load of the surgical instrumentʼs tip during counter traction against an organ. The stereo matching engine developed in this study can offer a new modality in the construction of an MCA model. The integration of our system and other MCA modalities is promising for further improvement of LoAs in robotic surgery.
