Autonomous retrieval and positioning of surgical instruments in robotized laparoscopic surgery using visual servoing and laser pointers

This paper presents a robotic vision system that automatically retrieves and positions surgical instruments in robotized laparoscopic surgery. The surgical instrument is mounted on the end-effector of a surgical robot which can be controlled by automatic visual feedback. The goal of the automated task is to bring the instrument at a desired location from an unknown or hidden position. To achieve this task, a special instrument-holder is designed with optical fibers and collimators. This instrument-holder projects laser dot patterns onto the organ surface which are seen in the endoscopic images. Then, the instrument is retrieved and centered in the image plane using a visual servoing algorithm. With this system, the surgeon can also specify a desired position for the instrument in the image. Our approach is successfully validated in a real surgical environment by performing experiments on living animals in the surgical training room of IRCAD.