Toward Autonomous Collision Avoidance for Robotic Neurosurgery in Deep and Narrow Spaces in the Brain

The present authors have been developing a master-slave neurosurgical robot and its intelligent control for tasks in the deep and narrow spaces of the brain. This paper proposes a robotic autonomous control method for avoiding possible collisions between the shaft of a surgical robotic instrument and the surrounding tissues. To this end, a new robotic simulator was developed and used to evaluate the proposed method. The results showed the proof of concept of the proposed autonomous collision avoidance, which has the potential to enhance the safety of robotic neurosurgery in deep and narrow spaces.