Models for Force Control in Telesurgical Robot Systems

Surgical robotics is one of the most rapidly developing fields within robotics. Besides general motion control issues, control engineers often find it challenging to design robotic telesurgery systems, as these have to deal with complex environmental constrains. The unique behavior of soft tissues requires special approaches in both robot control and system modeling in the case of robotic tissue manipulation. Precise control depends on the appropriate modeling of the interaction between the manipulated tissues and the instruments held by the robotic arm, frequently referred to as the tool–tissue interaction. Due to the nature of the physiological environment, the mechatronics of the systems and the time delays, it is difficult to introduce a universal model or a general modeling approach. This paper gives an overview of the emerging problems in the design and modeling of telesurgical systems, analyzing each component, and introducing the most widely employed models. The arising control problems are reviewed in the frames of master–slave type teleoperation, proposing a novel soft tissue model and providing an overview of the possible control approaches.