Multi functional drill incorporating linear motor for haptic surgical instrument and simulator

In orthopedic surgery, tasks to cut the vertebra by surgical drills involve the risk of the spinal cord injury. Since the spinal cord injury causes motor and sensory disorder to patients, orthopedists who perform spine surgery must have skills to achieve tasks using surgical drills. Although robotic technologies is being applied to orthopedic surgical operations, support for surgeons in delicate tasks requiring surgeon's skills is insufficient. In this study, a multi functional drill available for both a surgical instrument and a simulator is presented. A linear motor incorporated in the proposed device used as a surgical instrument provides support for operators, while measuring position information and estimating force information. Furthermore, environmental information can be abstracted by haptic information such as position and force information. Virtual environment reproduced by the environmental information is presented by the proposed device used as a simulator. The feasibility of the multi functional drill is confirmed by utilizing functions as a surgical instrument and a simulator.