Smith predictor based control in teleoperated image-guided beating-heart surgery

Surgery on a freely beating-heart is extremely difficult as the surgeon must perform the procedure while following the heart´s fast motion. However, by controlling a teleoperated robot to continuously follow the heart´s motion, the surgeon can operate on a seemingly stationary heart. The heart´s motion is calculated from ultrasound images and thus involves a non-negligible delay estimated to be 100 ms that, if not compensated for, can cause the robot end-effector (i.e., the surgical tool) to collide with and puncture the heart. This research proposes the use of a Smith predictor to compensate for this time delay. The results suggest that this improves heart motion tracking as the mean absolute error, the difference between the surgeon´s motion and the distance between the heart and surgical tool, and the mean integrated square error decreased.