Robot-assisted Long Bone Fractures Realignment

Bones are dynamic structures, being supported by muscles, tendons, and ligaments. When some or all the structures are disturbed i.e. in fractures, the alignment of the bone in respect to the rest of the body is deranged. This gives rise to axial as well as rotational deformity in three dimensional planes. The correct alignment and position of the long bones are to be maintained to heal the bone in the best possible anatomical and functional position. The objective of this research is to address the problems in the current practice involving surgeon, assistant, fluoroscopy and crude mechanical means and to see if a robotic solution exists to solve the problems of manipulating and reducing long bone fractures. This paper presents various design aspects of the proposed surgeon-instructed, image-guided and robotic system including the system design specification, robot design and analysis, motion control and implementation, and x-ray image processing and incorporation in CAD environment.