Toward Robot-Assisted Dental Surgery: Path Generation
and Navigation System Using Optical Tracking Approach
Auranuch Lorsakul and Jackrit Suthakorn* Chanjira Sinthanayothin and Wichit Tharanon
Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Center for National Science and Technology
Biomedical and Robotics Technology (BART LAB), Faculty of Development Agency (NSTDA)
Engineering, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand Klong Luang, Pathumthani, Thailand
auranuch@bartlab.org and *Corresponding author:
egjst@mahidol.ac.th
chanjira.sinthanayothin@nectec.or.th, and
wichit.tharanon@adtec.or.th
Abstract - The main aim of this paper is to develop dental
implant surgical navigation system based on homogenous
transformation algorithms. This work is a partial section of
robot-assisted surgical development. The previous works are
presented in numerous basic research. They are methodology
design on tool tip calibration, optical marker recognition, and
pose determination using neural networks. This paper concerns
with tracking path generation system based on fundamental of
optical tracking. The intraoperative system is the principal focus
area of this study. The homogenous transformation has been
calculated in term of kinematics equation among marker
relationship. The stereo camera is utilized to retrieve 3D position
of different pattern styles of markers. The beneath marker
recognition algorithm using rotation-invariant neural network
and physical method is performed to identify markers. The
fundamental relationship among markers are computed to
obtain the orientation and translation between the guided path
and the instrument’s tool tip. The experiment has been
demonstrated and performed under prototype model. The
method is to work on procedure step by step. They begin with
patient information input and continuously perform on marker
recognition, tool tip calibrations and marker digitization. The
path tracking is executed to observe the accuracy of the system.
The result shows that the system can be performed to track path
based on beforehand planning.
Index Terms - Surgical Navigation System, Dental Implant,
Optical Tracking, Computer Integrated Surgery
I. INTRODUCTION
Dental Implant is a surgical treatment of tooth root
replacement which is the most frequently used in prosthetic
dentistry. It can be used to replace missing teeth by screwing a
very simple metal of medical grade such as titanium or
titanium alloy into the jaw bone. A present mechanical guided
system or template drill guided system is an old-fashion
technology for dental implant guidance. It is derived by
waxing up patient’s teeth impression, and then it has to
transfer the interactive planning of implants from 2D and 3D
visualization to the template in reality [1]. The drawbacks of
this method are on the lack of interactive control during
implant is operated, as well as, the high cost of drilled guided
template intervention [2, 3].
Fig. 1. Dental implant navigation system development architecture
Currently, a new system of computer-assisted surgery
(CAS) for oral implantology application has been developed
and introduced clinically. Computerized navigation system is
offered in order to implement intraoperative guidance of the
surgical instruments based on a presurgical plan. Because of
its successes for the past several years, dentists have come to
rely on them for solving problems that were formerly
insolvable. The methodology based on CAS interventions
includes preoperative and intraoperative procedures. The
preoperative surgery is to use 3D views as provided to
enhance raw images obtained from the patient before
operation. The technique is to render a target region and a
pathway associated with relative organs from CT data. This
helps dentists to get familiar with the anatomy of the patient in
advance [4]. Turning to intraoperative stage, intraoperative
support can be used during the real surgical procedure in both
navigation and decision aid purposes. It provides three-
dimensional (3D) orientation of surgical instrument position
and trajectory displayed on a monitor in real-time within
patient’s 3D imaging data [5]. A robust and high accuracy
tracking system are main parameters in navigation system.
Sets of infrared (IR) based surgical marker emitters are
designed in different patterns for tracking movement of
surgical instruments and patient’s position. Because the
objects except the surgical markers in the operation room
Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics
Bangkok, Thailand, February 21 - 26, 2009
978-1-4244-2679-9/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE 1212