Achieving High Precision Laparoscopic Manipulation through Adaptive Force Control

In this paper, we present a new solution to laparoscopic manipulation based on forcefeedback control. This method allows us to both explicitely control the forces applied to the patient through the trocar and to precisely control the position of the surgical instrument. It does not require any geometrical model of the operative environment nor any fine robot base placement prior to the instrument insertion. Different adaptive control strategies involving different kinds of sensory equipments are proposed. These strategies are experimentally validated on a laboratory apparatus. An experiment is also presented where a laparoscope held by the robot’s arm tracks a target through visual servoing.